# Talk:Combat (video game)

Should the Telestar Combat! be described in Telestar Combat! instead of here?  Doesn't everyone assume that 'video game' + 'combat' equals Atari 2600 Combat?

Article is at Telstar Combat!. 2fort5r (talk) 01:36, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Just to correct Bumm13's claim, according to this interview with Joe (as well as my talks with him), Combat originated with Steve Mayer as a port of Atari's Tank game for a proof of concept.  Joe debugged it and rewrote the core of the tank demo in the process.  Larry Wagner then came in as project manager/lead programmer for the Combat project (team of 4) that included Kaplan.  In fact, Wagner signed the 20th anniversary certificate for Stella (the 2600 code name) as "Larry Wagner - original head of 1st group of programmers who completed Combat and wrote the number-crunching part of Video Chess."  --Marty Goldberg 04:36, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

This game was re-made in Wii Play. Can this be put into both this article and Wii Play? -dogman15 05:40, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

The Wii's is a game called Tank (which is actually the name of the original Atari arcade game).  Unless there's a direct claimed correlation, I'm not sure it really belongs here. --Marty Goldberg 06:23, 26 February 2007 (UTC)

As someone looking for information on the Atari 2600 game Combat, I found the following quote, "Earlier in 1977, Coleco had released the similarly titled Telstar Combat!, an entry in its Telstar series of dedicated consoles," distracting and unrelated to the rest of the narrative. As I know absolutely nothing about this game or the Coleco game, I am suggesting that while this line may or may not be of value to the article, it certainly does not fit as the fourth sentence. --Crusher1 (talk) 21:36, 10 March 2009 (UTC)

I must admit from personal experiance, for a 2k Atari 2600 game, the graphics are quite good. mcjakeqcool Mcjakeqcool (talk) 18:00, 4 April 2009 (UTC)

No joy on wether or not Combat has good graphics for a 2k game? If anyone has any give us a bell asap. mcjakeqcool Mcjakeqcool (talk) 19:32, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

The tank sections of this are very similar to the tank subgame from Tron (video game) from 1982. Was the Tron game also based on "Tank" from 1974? 2fort5r (talk) 01:34, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Hi all,
I just wanted your thoughts on making some changes to the wording. I don't have a background with this game, so maybe someone else can help. It strikes me that some of the phrasing (and part of that may be on me as the copyeditor who worked on the section) could stand to be cleaned up a bit. In the Tanks subsection, we have this phrasing: 
"Ammunition is dependent on the chosen level and includes straight missiles, guided missiles, and "Tank Pong," in which the shots bounce off the walls, with variations upon whether a direct hit can strike opponents or if a strike requires a billiard hit to count." 
I think this could be split into two sentences, firstly, but I don't feel comfortable doing that as the way the original portion of the article was written is a touch unclear and I'd hate to change the meaning. It seems from the description that it isn't really accurate to call the ammunition differences different levels but separate game modes, and it sounds like each game mode can use the same set of maps (levels). What are your thoughts?
Cheers,
--JoshuaLeach16 (talk) 19:16, 15 July 2021 (UTC)

I've been on an Atari 2600 kick and have re-written this article out to follow more with Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Video games. If there are any major mistakes or other items, please feel free to edit. But I generally think it is an improvement. Andrzejbanas (talk) 05:49, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Combat (video game)/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: Indrian (talk · contribs) 14:42, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
I’ll tackle this one, and I promise we will wrap up a little more quickly than last time!  Comments to follow shortly. Indrian (talk) 14:42, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
Starting the review.  Not finished yet, more to come. Indrian (talk) 15:24, 10 May 2023 (UTC)


### Lead
"The player whose vehicle has been hit less at the end is the winner." - While technically true, this is an awkward way to phrase this. Probably better to say something about how a player scores a point for hitting their opponent and the player with the most points when time runs out wins.
Done. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:26, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
"The game was being made while the Atari 2600 was still in development, and like many games for the system, it was based on popular arcade games, with Combat being similar to Tank." - Awkward compound sentence, as the two ideas (that it was created during the development of the system and that it was based on Tank) are not really connected.  Also "was being made" is an awkward verb.
Tried re-phrasing. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:26, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
Not sure exactly where this should go, but mentioning it here.  All the early VCS games were released by Sears through its Tele-Games line with different names. Combat was known as Tank-Plus. This needs to be mentioned somewhere in the article for completeness.
I've added it to the release section. From all the research i've done, the common name of the game is Combat, but getting the Sears title in is important. I've included it in the release section with a citation. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:26, 23 May 2023 (UTC)


### Gameplay
"The player whose tank or aircraft has been hit less at the end of two minutes and sixteen seconds is the winner." - As in the lead, this is an awkward way to frame win conditions.
Tried re-phrasing. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:30, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
"Early development on the game existed by late 1975 by Steve Mayer." - Awkward sentence.
Re-phrased. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:30, 23 May 2023 (UTC)


### Development
"Combat was made to fit into a two Kilobyte cartridge's ROM." - Passive voice, and "made" is a poor verb choice.
Tried re-phrasing. Hope this helps. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:42, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
"Nick Monfrot stated that the code was made in assembly language with early work done it by Joe Decuir who was working on the VCS hardware with Miner." - "Was made" is back.  Code is not generally referred to as made in the manner.
Swapped some words around. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:42, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
"Ron Milner and Steve Mayer conceived of what became Combat I was an implement" - This is a quote, so maybe he just spoke awkwardly, but the gammar is funky. I would double check the quote.
I'm gathering you mean the "conceived of what became", which is what the quote says, I did however mess up as it's "implementer" not implement". So i've changed that. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:42, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
"Decuir had most of the game made" - Made again. "Decuir completed most of the game" or something similar would work better.
Done. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:42, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
"while it was put into its final form by Larry Wagner" - Passive voice.
Rephrased this sentence. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:42, 23 May 2023 (UTC)


### Release
"Combat was bundled in with the release of the Atari 2600 from 1977 to 1982." - Mostly true, but this neglects the Sears Tele-Games Video Arcade release of the VCS, which was packaged with Air-Sea Battle instead under the name Target Fun.
Ahh just got to this. I've edited it this in from earlier requests. :) Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:42, 23 May 2023 (UTC)


### Reception
"noting that the simple graphics and sound fail to give a true impression of the game, noting its high replay value and "highly entertaining cat-and-mouse action."" - Having two dependent clauses in a row starting with "noting" is awkward. Rephrase.
Re-phrased. Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:49, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
And that's it. We mostly have some grammar cleanup here along with a few holes surrounding the Sears release of the game.  Therefore, I will place this nomination  On hold while these issues are addressed. Indrian (talk) 02:31, 19 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for looking into this @Indrian:, I believe I've covered your comments. Anything else? Andrzejbanas (talk) 02:49, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
I was about to hop on and help out but I guess you got it covered, haha. - Cukie Gherkin (talk) 03:34, 23 May 2023 (UTC)
I went ahead an made a few more edits for grammar and flow, and everything looks good now. I will go ahead and promote. Indrian (talk) 06:42, 2 June 2023 (UTC)

In the legacy section, is it worth mentioning Infogrames' reboot of Combat? I also noticed the 2001 reboot doesn't have a page. ThomasTheWest (talk) 16:21, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

Possibly! Can we dig up some information about the game? I wasn't familiar with it until now. Andrzejbanas (talk) 19:18, 2 May 2024 (UTC)