Depthcharge

Depthcharge is an arcade machine from 1977 — the era before Space Invaders, when video games were still working out what they were supposed to be. It was created by Gremlin Industries of San Diego; in Japan it was released under license by Taito as Sub Hunter, which explains why the Taito name has stuck to it ever since.

You grasp the idea in three seconds. The screen shows the sea in cross-section: your destroyer sails along the surface at the top while submarines pass beneath at several depths. You drop depth charges — up to six can be sinking at once — and try to hit whatever you can. The deeper a submarine runs, the more points it is worth, so the whole game is one extended dilemma: hammer the safe targets just below the surface, or send charges on a long, risky journey toward a fat score? The submarines fight back with mines that float upward, forcing you to steer the ship clear. All of it against a time limit, with no lives — just ticking seconds and a counter.

The charm is in the ballistics. A charge does not sink straight down; momentum carries it forward, so a deep submarine has to be led by several seconds. Judging the intersection of two slow trajectories is a skill that builds pleasantly over time, and a precise long-range kill on the deepest submarine still delivers genuine satisfaction.

Let us not oversell it: this is a five-to-ten-minute game, black and white and acoustically modest, as 1977 demanded. But unlike many of its contemporaries it has one readable idea, working tension, and a loop that makes you try just once more. As a window into the earliest arcade era, it works beautifully.

At oldgame.cz, Depthcharge runs directly in your browser with nothing to install.