Cosmic Avenger

The final installment in Universal's Cosmic series, players take control of the Avenger space fighter and, as in Scramble, use bullets and bombs against enemy air and ground forces. The world is one continuous level made up of different areas. The game was ported to ColecoVision as one of its August 1982 launch titles in North America. The ColecoVision version was more successful than the arcade original, garnering mostly positive reception from critics who praised the action, visuals, and sound effects. Ports to the Atari 2600 and Intellivision were in development and advertised, but not released.

• Title — Cosmic Avenger • Developer — Universal Nuvatec (ColecoVision) • Publisher — Arcade Universal ColecoVision Coleco (NA) CBS Electronics (EU) • Series — Cosmic • Platforms — Arcade, ColecoVision • Released — ArcadeJuly 1981 ColecoVisionAugust 1982 • Genre — Scrolling shooter • Modes — Single-player, multiplayer • Arcade System — 8106

• Illustration — The player's ship (left of the searchlight beam) flies over the plaid terrain of the first section. Players take control of the Avenger fighter craft, guiding it across horizontally-scrolling terrain and dodging obstacles. The main objective is earning points by destroying alien forces. The game is divided into three sections, each with its own terrain and obstacles. There is no intermission between sections; the game scrolls into the new terrain seamlessly. The game can be played by one or two players, alternating turns as each player's ship is destroyed. A joystick moves the ship in four directions, and buttons fire lasers and bombs to destroy spaceships, anti-aircraft missiles, tanks, and UFOs. A radar display at the top of the screen shows incoming enemies. The ship does not require a constantly depleting fuel supply to be replenished, which allows players to focus solely on the enemies. The enemies have specific behavior patterns and can crash into each other. As the game progresses, enemies act more aggressively and fire at a faster rate. An "X station" occasionally appears on the ground; if hit, it destroys all enemies visible on the screen. If the player's ship is hit by enemy fire, crashes against the terrain, enemies or any explosion radius, a life is lost and they will be respawned into the nearest checkpoint reached. Once all lives are lost, the game is over, although players can insert coins to continue playing without having to restart from the beginning.

Cosmic Avenger was first released in arcades by Universal in July 1981 as one of the first games with forced horizontal scrolling in the wake of Scramble and Super Cobra by Konami and following the May 1981 release of Sega's horizontally and vertically scrolling Space Odyssey. The game runs on Universal's 8106 arcade board. The ColecoVision port from Nuvatec was one of the console's North American launch titles in August 1982, with a European release in 1983. Coleco announced and advertised versions of Cosmic Avenger for both the Atari 2600 and Intellivision, but neither was released for unknown reasons. The original arcade release of Cosmic Avenger did not become a hit, but found success and a larger audience as one of the launch titles for ColecoVision, like some of the lesser known arcade games that gained popularity on the console such as Universal's Lady Bug. In 2014, Cosmic Avenger was included in the ColecoVision Flashback compilation released by AtGames.

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