Death Trap

Death Trap is a video game in the strategy genre developed by Avalon Hill Game Company, The and published by Avalon Hill Game Company, The originally released in 1983. It is currently playable on Atari 2600.

You have been sent to deliver a message. Suddenly, you encounter a huge ship, IT, which does not want the message to reach the Galactic Emperor. To escape, you must destroy the three generators, one of which is hidden until the other two are destroyed.

IT is protected by three shields, A, B and C, from the top. There is a fourth shield, D, below. If any shield is touched, the game ends immediately. IT also has a guided fireball that follows your aircraft for a short distance. If it hits you repeatedly, you will die. If you can avoid being hit long enough, a repair team may be able to undo the damage (see game variations below).

Use the joystick to move your ship left, right, up and down. Press the fire button to fire the torpedo. Holding down the fire button will guide or accelerate the torpedo to the left or right. Note, however, that while you are guiding the torpedo, your ship does not move and may be damaged or destroyed.

Damaging the IT generator will create an invincible zone on shields A, B, and C. This moves across the shields, making it difficult for shots to pass through as they linger. If the left and right generators are not damaged for 15 seconds, IT will lower shield C, reducing the operating range. It also loses points (see score below).

Once the left and right generators are destroyed, the central generator becomes visible. Destroy it and you win the game. However, you have to work as fast as possible because hitting the central generator raises the D shield.

You start with the six ships at the bottom of the screen. Each time you are hit by a fireball, you lose a ship. If you lose all of them, the game ends.

Game variations
Once you press the fire button to select the joystick, move the joystick up or down to select the difficulty level.

The difficulty settings are
Easy (square) = fireballs shoot slower, invincible shield split is lower, repair kits are present.
Normal (x) = normal fireball firing speed, normal invincible shield division, repair equipment present.
Difficult (diamond-shaped) = faster fireball launch speed, normal division of the invincible shield, no repair equipment present. In other words, a ship lost to a fireball attack can never be recovered.

The difficulty switch is not used. Once set, move the joystick to the right to start the game.

Scoring
Preparation = Once every few seconds, one point is awarded per ship at the bottom of the screen, up to a maximum of 6 points.
Damage = Generator hits multiplied by 10. For example, 10 points for the first hit, 70 points for the seventh hit, 120 points for the twelfth hit, etc.
Destroying the left and right generators = 2000 points
Destroy the central generator = 5000 points
Destroy shield C = 90 points lost, but the score can never be less than 0.

It is possible that we have multiple downloads available when different versions exist.