Z-Tack (Base Attack)

Z-Tack is a shoot-’em-up video game developed and published by Onbase Co. under the Bomb label for the Atari 2600 in 1983. The game places the player in control of an alien spacecraft — often described as UFO-like — with the primary objective of destroying enemy bases nestled within city landscapes below. There are six distinct city environments, and the player must clear them all to progress.

Gameplay in Z-Tack involves navigating the spacecraft freely around the screen and firing in the direction of threats, which include missiles and flying hazards that the player must avoid. The player advances to the next level once all bases in the current level have been destroyed, and the game ends if all the player’s ships are lost or the maximum score threshold is reached.

Unlike the defensive premise of the 1982 game Atlantis, which tasked players with protecting a city, Z-Tack is effectively its inverted counterpart, focusing on offense against urban targets from above. This conceptual inversion was noted in contemporary coverage and reflected in comparisons between the two titles.

Z-Tack can be played by one or two players in alternating turns, offering both beginner and advanced game variations to adjust difficulty. Despite its straightforward objectives, the game’s mix of enemy behaviors and hazards provides a modest challenge within the limitations of the Atari 2600 hardware.

Contemporary reception for Z-Tack was mixed. Early reviews acknowledged the title as a competent shooter with a clear concept but criticized its lack of originality and simplistic graphics compared to other titles of the era. Retrospective commentary has tended to view Z-Tack as a lesser-known example of early 1980s shoot-’em-ups on the Atari 2600, notable mostly for its rarity and basic inversion of the Atlantis formula.