Atari Combat warfare involving two enemy tanks

Combat (video game) was an early dedicated video game console by Coleco (called Telstar Combat!) in 1977 featuring battling tanks. A better known battling-tanks game with almost the same name was also available as a video game for the Atari 2600 later that year. Atari Combat was based on an earlier black-and-white coin-operated arcade game produced by Atari (under the Kee Games name) in 1974 called Tank.

Telstar Combat!

The Coleco Telstar Combat! game was released in 1977 as a post-Pong dedicated video game console. Like Coleco's earlier home Pong clones, it used a General Instruments AY-3-8700 CPU instead of TTL. The console was a modest success but due to having too many similar dedicated console products, Coleco nearly went bankrupt in 1980.

Atari Combat with warring biplanes

Atari Combat

In late 1977, Atari released the Atari 2600, its now-classic cartridge-based video game console. Combat, a tank battle game similar to the earlier game by Coleco, was included with the console from its introduction until 1982. Atari Combat, unlike the earlier Coleco version, had color graphics and numerous game play variations (27 in all), even including variations involving airplane warfare instead of tanks. Notable variations included bouncing munitions (Called Tank-Pong) and invisible tanks. Sears also produced licensed versions of Combat as the game included with its "Tele-Games" branded Atari 2600 consoles. Atari Combat was programmed by Joe Decuir and Larry Wagner.

External links

• Coleco Telstar Combat! page (http://www.pong-story.com/coleco_combat.htm)
• Atari Age Combat page (http://www.atariage.com/software_page.html?SoftwareID=935)
• KLOV entry on Tank arcade game (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=&game_id=12989)