Quantum

Quantum, released in 1982, belongs to Atari's vector cabinets and stands out among them in two ways. First, there is no shooting. The player steers a cursor with a trackball and destroys particles by enclosing them in a loop; closing the shape is the attack. Second, it is strikingly abstract even by the standards of an era when abstraction was the arcade norm.

That design produces a different kind of play from what contemporary machines offered. You have to plan a path that captures as many targets as possible in one loop, because scoring rewards multiple captures far more than single ones. At the same time you must avoid contact with hazardous objects, which makes every run a balance of reward against risk. The trackball gives movement a fluidity a joystick cannot match, and the whole game is built on that input.

The vector display supplies its characteristic look: bright thin lines on black, glowing in a way no raster monitor reproduces. Colour vector displays were expensive as well, and only a small number of cabinets used them.

Quantum remained a marginal presence in arcades, because it did not fit the expectations of an audience that had come to shoot. That is precisely what makes it more interesting now than many contemporary hits: it shows that alternative directions were being explored in 1982. You can start it here in the browser and decide within a few minutes whether this way of thinking suits you.