Carnival

Carnival is an arcade game released by Atari in 1980.

Go to the carnival and get ready to shoot at different targets with this game developed by Atari for arcade cabinet.

Carnival was then ported to several consoles, of course to Atari (2600) and then to ColecoVision and Intellivision.

Using the concept of the famous Space Invaders, Atari replaced the spaceships with "nice" animals that won't shoot at you!

But that doesn't mean that this game is any simpler.

 

Here, skill is required. You'll have to be more and more precise as the levels progress if you want to see your performance soar and be the master of the shooting range.

The goal is to hit, with your weapon, the targets moving in front of you on 3 levels.

Once all these targets are destroyed, you will move on to the next level which will be a little more difficult than the previous one.
From level 2, you will only have 48 bullets left to finish the level, so it will be necessary to refuel from time to time to get through it.

 

Some hazards may cause you problems to achieve this. For example, if you miss your target, the penalty can sometimes be heavy.

Indeed, if your bullet hits the upper part of the screen at the wrong time, a malus will rob you of a few cartridges or a few points and you may quickly run out of ammunition to finish the level.

 

You start the game with 68 rounds in your gun allowing you to shoot your targets. Each of them will give you more or less points depending on their distance.

All targets have the same value: 50 points for the highest line, 30 points for the middle one, and for the closest line each successful shot will give you 10 points.

The number of points will increase as you progress through the game.

Some targets are to be favored, such as the yellow ducks that will fly away to eat your remaining cartridges if you don't kill them in time, or the numbers that will increase your available bullets.

If you can't shoot anymore, your game ends.

But don't panic, there are bonuses that allow you to reload your barrel a bit and thus defeat these voracious animals.

 

At the end of each level, a bonus screen allows you to increase your points. You will have to shoot as many times as possible at a bear that will advance faster and faster until it leaves the screen.

 

The music during the game clearly reminds us of the barrel organ that used to be played at funfairs. Unfortunately, it is quite repetitive and doesn't change as you move through the levels, but we are allowed to turn it off anyway (using a ball!).

 

To play this game, a 2-axis joystick is enough because the game is only played horizontally. For the action, a shoot button is needed as well as a start and select button to launch the game.

By the way, the original arcade did not have joysticks, only 2 buttons were used as directional controls: 1 button for the left and the other for the right.


If you want to create a Carnival themed arcade or bartop, you can create the Carnival plexiglass marquee directly on our dedicated page.