Air Raiders: The Definitive FAQ
c. 2002 D. Dodge Silver
V1.0
I. Game Concepts
II. Take off!
III. Engaging the Enemy
IV. Landing
I. Game Concepts
A. The story.
You are a pilot of a non-descript plane engaging non-descript enemy planes. For
some reason, Air Raiders always makes me think of WWII era planes, but it could
be really any time period. Feel free to imagine yourself taking part in aerial
combat in your favorite war. (Note: There was no aerial combat in the American
Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Mexican-American War, or the
Spanish-American War. Those of you who are citizens of countries that are not
the United States, please consult your local library regarding armed conflicts
in your nation's history that did and did not involve aerial combat. Don't say
you didn't learn something today!)
B. Objective
Take off, engage enemy aircraft, and land safely before running out of fuel.
Upon landing, you will be given ammunition equal to the number of enemies you
shot down. If you shot down more than ten, you will be allowed to take off
again for another sortie. (Fun "Air Raiders" Fact: "Sortie" is a military
term for a mission, in this case, a mission to shoot down the enemy aircraft.
"Sortie" comes from the French word "sortir", which means "to go out". I'll bet
you had no idea you'd be learning history and foreign language skills by playing
Atari games. Mention that to your mom when she complains about you wasting your
time with "those silly games.")
C. Controls
Those of you familiar with flight simulator games should feel right at home.
Once airborne, down will cause your aircraft to climb, and up will send you into
a dive. Left and right bank in their respective directions. In a surprising
depth of control for the Atari 2600, you also have the ability to bank while
climbing or diving, using the appropriate diagonal control combinations. The
button is used to fire your gun during the airborne sequences, and to start your
taxi down the runway during the take off sequence.
II. Take off!
This is probably the easiest thing to handle in Air Raiders. To take off, press
the fire button and wait a few seconds while your aircraft gains ground momentum.
When you are going fast enough, pull back (down) on the joystick, and your
aircraft will begin to climb.
III. Engaging the Enemy
Once you are in the air, you will want to engage the enemy. At this stage in
the game, you will have a gun sight on the screen. The green below represents
the land, and the blue represents the sky. Below that, you have indicators for
altitude (your distance above the ground, in 1000s of feet), hits (the number of
enemy aircraft shot down), and ammo (the number of bullets remaining). Below
that, a fuel gauge that goes from blue to pink as you consume fuel. Finally, a
black bar with a red center. This indicates your position in the air left to
right. The red center area is the area most heavily guarded with flak cannons.
More on those later.
Your aircraft has the ability to climb to 40,000 feet. However, you won't find
many planes at that height. Look around 20-30000 feet for the enemy formations.
They fly in what I like to call a "profile formation", meaning you see them from
the side, and they fly in a three man pyramid formation. When you see one of
these formations, fire your gun. If you hit any of the planes, you'll get a
"hit credit" on your hit indicator below, and the remaining planes in the
formation will "scramble", or break formation. Try to pick off the remaining
aircraft, then hunt for a new formation.
Now, this is "Air Raiders", not a turkey shoot. The enemy has some defenses for
their seemingly unarmed planes that your are mercilessly shooting down. These
defenses come in the form of flak cannons. Flak appears as black splotches that
may make you think of bugs hitting your windshield. If one of these splotches
hits near your sight, you will go into an uncontrolled dive for anywhere from 5-
15 feet. Needless to say, flak can be deadly at low altitudes. Your only
defense against flak is to go into a climb when it starts. Climb up until the
flak stops, then dive back down after more enemies. Your rate of fuel
consumption doubles when you climb, so keep an eye on that gauge.
So, you've taken off, you've shot up the bad guys, and you're starting to run
low on gas. What do you do now? Well, I'll tell you.
IV. Landing.
Landing is a bit trickier, and probably the most difficult aspect of "Air
Raiders". What you need to do is descend to 0 feet. Do this slowly, taking the
last 3000 feet one at a time. Cruise at 0 feet for a few seconds and your see
the runway. Now do the most counter-intuitive move in a flight sim video game
ever. Push the joystick into a dive (up), until almost the whole windshield is
filled with horizon. Then release it. You have landed. You will be given
ammunition equal to the number of "hits" you had this sortie, and if it exceeds
10, you will be allowed to take off again. Go back to section II if you still
need help.
V. The Extra Bits
For those of you who do not have the benefit of the "Air Raiders" manual, here
are the ratings for the various scores.
Rating First Time Up
Entire Game
Student Pilot 0-10
0-10
Novice 10-20
10-30
Fighter Pilot 20-30
30-50
Ace Pilot 30-45
50-70
Double Ace 45-65
70-90
Triple Ace 65+
90+
Well, that concludes the "Air Raiders" FAQ. Hope it helped you out.
VI. The Legal Stuff
Any reproduction, rebroadcast, or retransmission of this FAQ without the express
written consent of Major League Baseball...oh, wait...wrong disclaimer.
Please don't rip off my "Air Raiders" FAQ. If you desperately need to use it
for something, let me know, I'll probably be cool with it, as long as it's not
something like, "The White Supremacists Guide to Atari 2600 Games." Copyright
2002. D. Dodge Silver.
