The classic arcade game Moon Cresta has now made its way to the Atari 7800!
Each round consists of ten waves of aliens, and two sets of docking sequences (provided you have a ship left to dock with). Every two waves of aliens have different entrance sequences, attack sequences, and point values.
After you eliminate the first four waves of aliens, if you have any ships in reserve you will be given an opportunity to dock with your next ship. Successfully docking gives you increased firepower, but also gives the aliens a bigger target to aim for. You are given another chance to dock after the next four waves of aliens (again as long as you have another ship in reserve).
Skill Levels
As you pass each round of ten waves of aliens, the game play starts over, and the difficulty increases. The aliens are more and more likely to re-emerge from the bottom of the screen after passing the player's ship. The attack patters become more varied and difficult to maneuver around.
- Easy: The aliens are slower, and start out unable to reemerge under the player's ship once they pass below it (re-appearing at the center of the screen instead).
- Normal: The aliens move at the standard speed, and increase how often they re-emerge under the player's ship after passing below it.
- Hard: The aliens again move at the standard speed, but they often re-emerge under the player's ship after passing below it. Attack patterns are much more varied and unpredictable. After the first round, the final alien in each wave moves much faster.
Additional Information
This version of Moon Cresta includes the game cartridge and four-page color manual. Available in NTSC and PAL television formats, please select above.
Get a Moon Cresta Box!


If you'd like a boxed copy of Moon Cresta, please select "Box Upgrade: Yes" at the top of the page before adding Moon Cresta to your cart. Our boxes are professionally printed and include a box insert to hold your Moon Cresta cartridge in place. We want you to play our games, so we have not sealed or shrinkwrapped the boxes in any way, allowing you easy access to the game cartridge and manual.
These boxes are the same size as boxes Atari produced for their games "back in the day". They look great sitting on a shelf with your other boxed homebrew games, or alongside games from the classic Atari 2600 library. We only have a limited number of boxes for each game, and there is no guarantee they will become available again once our supplies are exhausted. Click on the images to the right to see larger photos of the box.
Number of Players | 1 - 2 |
Controller | Joystick |
Cartridge Size | 32K |
Programming | Robert DeCrescenzo |
This is so very close to being a phenomenal port of the arcade game. Unfortunately, the suspect hit detection derails it completely, in my opinion. I don't know the first thing about Atari 7800 programming, so maybe there is a technical reason for this.
I just can't help but be incredibly annoyed when I watch a shot pass right through an enemy without damaging it. You have to hit the enemies right smack in the middle of the sprite for the game to register a hit. At the same time, the enemies will destroy your ship a couple pixels before actually making contact with it. I had a similar issue with the 7800 version of Frenzy. In that game, however, it is much easier to work around than it is in Moon Cresta.
I want to recommend this game, but I can't. It's a wonderful effort, but the hit detection ruins the fun for me. Again, maybe there is a technical reason for this occurring, but even if that is the case, I have to rate this game objectively based on my enjoyment.
The arcade game is hard, but this version is nearly impossible. If you have a PS4, you can get the arcade version on that as part of the Arcade Archives series of releases. That's a much better investment, if you ask me.
Arcade lovers of the game rejoice. This is a near carbon copy of the Arcade original and does not disappoint in faithfully bringing forth the Arcade challenge and feel. Ship's multi-parts and stage handling is all intact. Enemy movement is as exact as possible with Bob taking the arcade ROMs, disassembled the source code, obtain proper enemy movement tables, and modifying to fit within the 320 mode of the console respectively. Docking, of course, is present as well.
Easy, Normal, and Hard difficulties are available choices. Normal provides the closest Arcade experience. For those who have never played the Arcade, this is one title where it is very likely such a person wants to start on Easy. Many who have played this game will tell you it is difficult and it will present quite the challenge.
If a person is not big into shooters, especially difficult ones, this is very much likely not the game for them. However, if an individual is looking for a challenging shooter and does not care about the presence of dazzling frills and special effects, this is one to tackle.
It's a 5 Star port of a 3 Star Arcade game For me. Therefore, I give it 4 stars.
MOON CRESTA is the best 7800 game ever.
It is my absolute favourite arcade game.And i am proud,that i am the reason,why BOB did it for the 7800 system :)
If you like space shooters, pick up a copy of Moon Cresta. Another awesome homebrew from PacManPlus!