Tac/Scan

Tac/Scan began life as a 1982 Sega arcade machine; the version here is the one that reached the Atari 2600 console a year later. The coin-op stood out for two things: vector graphics and, above all, the idea that you are not flying a single fighter but an entire squadron at once.

The console had no vectors to offer, but the port kept the central idea intact. You control a formation of five ships arranged in a V, sliding it along the bottom of the screen, and one press of the button makes every surviving ship fire a salvo. That is the whole trick: the squadron is simultaneously your firepower and your stock of lives. At full strength you lay down a dense wall of shots; every ship you lose thins the formation and weakens your fire with it. A losing player therefore keeps getting weaker — a cruel design loop, but a memorable one.

There is one way out of the spiral: after each completed round a replacement ship floats across the screen, and you can catch it to fill an empty slot in the formation. Rebuilding the squadron mid-flight matters as much as the shooting itself — without it you will not last long. The arcade original let you field a formation of seven ships; the 2600 version trims it to five and was played with the paddle controller, whose smooth rotation suited sliding the squadron about.

Let us be honest: there is not much content here. Enemy waves repeat and there is no goal beyond the score chase, which was the fate of most console shooters of the day. But the vanishing-squadron mechanic still sets Tac/Scan apart from dozens of interchangeable entries in the Atari 2600 catalogue — and for a few rounds of "one more try", it works reliably.

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