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Space Duel

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Space Duel was produced by Atari in 1982. Color vector game where player's ship shoots colored geometric shaped "asteroids", mines, enemy ships, and opposing player's ship. A bonus wave adds a multiplayer to the player's score when all bonus objects are shot. This game is a two-player color...

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Developer
Atari

Released on
1982

Size
1–2 Players

Version
Arcade

Requirements
Arcade

Downloads
Shooter

ESRB Rating
Not Rated

Cooperative
Yes

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Description

Space Duel was produced by Atari in 1982.

Color vector game where player’s ship shoots colored geometric shaped “asteroids”, mines, enemy ships, and opposing player’s ship. A bonus wave adds a multiplayer to the player’s score when all bonus objects are shot.

This game is a two-player color version of Asteroids. It has two different modes of play: competitive and team. In competitive mode, each player competes for points. Players can shoot each other for bonus points, but they don’t lose a ship. In team mode, the two players are attached together by a “filament”. Each player’s ship can move and shoot independently while still being attached.

Space Duel

Overview & History

Released by Atari in 1982, Space Duel stands as the final entry in vector-graphics pioneer Owen Rubin's legendary trilogy, following Asteroids and Asteroids Deluxe. Utilizing the powerful Color Vector Quadrascan hardware, the game introduced vibrant, glowing geometric shapes to the arcade landscape. Unlike its predecessors, Space Duel was explicitly designed with cooperative multiplayer in mind, allowing two players to team up locally to survive waves of hostile shapes, metallic insects, and space stations. Players could choose to play the standard game, an expanded variable-space mode with scrolling arenas, or a solo-only target-practice mode, making it one of Atari's most technically ambitious and visually distinct vector shooters of the golden age.

Gameplay Features & Mechanics

Space Duel tasks players with destroying floating formations of colorful, geometric hazards that split apart when shot, much like Asteroids. However, the game introduces dynamic enemy formations—such as spinning cubes, deadly diamond structures, and aggressive flying saucers—that morph and retaliate with heavy projectile fire. A standout gameplay mechanic is the dual-ship linkage system; two players can physically tether their ships together with a glowing energy beam. While linked, one player controls movement while the other aims and fires, or they can unlink at any moment to double their offensive coverage across the screen. Destroying entire formations without missing yields escalating score multipliers, while reckless shooting risks accidental friendly fire.