About

Demon Attack is a space shooter originally released in 1982 for the Atari 2600. It challenges the player to fend off waves of hovering creatures by blasting them with a laser cannon. The attacks grow more complex with each round, culminating in foes that split into dive-bombing monsters.

Press the Play button below to launch a browser port of Demon Attack.

Controls

The browser port supports input from these devices:

Keyboard
- Move: Left and Right arrow keys or the A and D keys
- Fire: Any other key
Gamepad
- Move: D-pad or analog stick
- Fire: Any other button
Touchscreen
- Setup: Enable autofire. This is the default on touchscreen-only devices.
- Move: Hold down the left or right side of the screen to move in those directions.
- Fire: Autofire takes care of the shooting.

Setup

The setup page provides options that replicate the original game variations, except for 2-player and co-op modes.

Autofire: Shoots continuously without player input. This feature was introduced in the browser port to make the game accessible to mobile players. It is the default for touchscreen-only devices.
Tracer: Allows the player to steer shots after firing.
Fast: Doubles the player’s cannon speed.

The original’s “advanced” mode starts the game from wave 13, at double cannon speed. In the browser port, the player must work up to that level.

Acknowledgements

The original Demon Attack was designed and programmed by Rob Fulop, with graphics created by Michael Becker.

Source

The browser port is not an emulation of the Atari 2600 version. Rather, it was developed in TypeScript through careful observation of gameplay and in-depth analysis of the original’s 6507 assembly language source code. It faithfully preserves the sound effects and graphics of the original, excluding only the Imagic logo.

The source is available here.