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217:, seen from the top down. Swarms of particles follow the player and bounce off each other, the player's ship, and the reactor core. Any object touching the outer "kill wall" of the reactor is destroyed. Pressing the Energy button during a collision with a particle will cause it to bounce away at a higher speed.
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protrude from the kill wall; if the player knocks particles into all the rods of one set, the core shrinks to its minimum size before starting to grow again. The player starts the game with a limited number of decoys, which can be deployed by pressing the Decoy button in order to lure particles
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s main flaw is not in the game itself, but the flexibility of the controlling joystick. The trackball controller of the
Gottlieb version is gone, replaced by the lackluster Atari joystick. The stiffness of the joystick makes it difficult to direct your ship with any great degree of precision."
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In later levels, the core is replaced by a slowly expanding vortex that can attract the player's ship and destroy it on contact. One or both of the bonus chambers may be briefly sealed off at times, and the kill wall becomes invisible as well.
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can be played with either a joystick or a trackball, though the latter is not mentioned in the manual. The difficulty switches set the sensitivity of the controls. There are no voice overs, and the bonus counter is invisible.
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The player earns points for destroying particles or luring/knocking them into the bonus chambers so that they bounce off the walls. A set number of particles must be destroyed in order to complete each level.
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toward the kill wall, control rods, or either of two small "bonus chambers" at opposite corners of the screen. An extra decoy is earned by knocking out both sets of rods.
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One life is lost whenever the player's ship touches the kill wall or vortex. The game ends when all lives are lost, with bonus points awarded for each unused decoy.
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171:. The object of the game is to cool down the core of a nuclear reactor without being pushed into its walls by swarms of subatomic particles.
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While touching the core is not harmful, it continually grows in size, restricting the available space for movement. Two sets of
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gave the game 93%, and said "A classic
Gottlieb game that relies on physics for its gameplay, which is quite rewarding."
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and two buttons, Energy and Decoy. The player controls a ship that can move freely within a
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179:, who previously designed and programmed a series of vector graphics arcade games for
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383:"Le site des anciennes revues informatiques - www.abandonware-magazines.org"
189:. It was the first arcade game to credit the developer on the title screen.
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version was licensed and developed, but never released.
330:"Tim Skelly's History of Cinematronics and Vectorbeam"
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316:"The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers"
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499:Video games developed in the United States
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474:Multiplayer and single-player video games
36:A flyer for the Arcade version of Reactor
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398:"Bringing Home the Arcade Game Craze"
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494:Video games about nuclear technology
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197:by Charlie Heath and published by
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434:Twin Galaxies High Score Rankings
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396:Murley, Mark S. (November 1982).
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354:"Parker Bros. for Intellivision"
201:the same year as the original.
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469:Cancelled Intellivision games
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152:1-2 players alternating turns
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484:Parker Brothers video games
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504:Multiplayer hotseat games
429:Killer List of Videogames
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209:Controls consist of a
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285:magazine wrote, "VCS
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479:Gottlieb video games
281:A 1983 reviewer for
167:released in 1982 by
88:Charlie Heath (2600)
358:Intellivision Lives
86:Tim Skelly (arcade)
459:Arcade video games
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248:Atari 2600 box art
193:was ported to the
175:was developed by
165:arcade video game
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464:Atari 2600 games
449:1982 video games
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360:. Archived from
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215:nuclear reactor
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199:Parker Brothers
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62:Parker Brothers
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314:Hague, James.
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364:on 2008-04-23
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181:Cinematronics
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82:Programmer(s)
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454:Action games
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366:. Retrieved
362:the original
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337:. Retrieved
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222:control rods
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183:, including
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55:Publisher(s)
43:Developer(s)
114:Platform(s)
108:David Thiel
104:Composer(s)
70:Designer(s)
443:Categories
368:2008-08-05
339:2008-08-06
334:dadgum.com
294:References
254:Atari 2600
195:Atari 2600
177:Tim Skelly
123:Atari 2600
98:Tim Skelly
75:Tim Skelly
271:Reception
211:trackball
94:Artist(s)
408:(1): 72.
287:Reactor'
205:Gameplay
169:Gottlieb
138:Genre(s)
59:Gottlieb
48:Gottlieb
427:at the
424:Reactor
191:Reactor
186:Rip Off
173:Reactor
160:Reactor
149:Mode(s)
129:Release
25:Reactor
402:Hi-Res
283:Hi-Res
163:is an
143:Action
119:Arcade
64:(2600)
240:Ports
276:Tilt
252:The
132:1982
260:An
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302:^
121:,
406:1
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