A team of four agents, each a specialist in one of the four elements - water, fire, air and earth - have been miniaturized to microscopic size in order to investigate a mysterious new virus that appears to be of alien origin.
The virus mutates rapidly, mimicking each of the four elements. But something went horribly wrong, and contact with the team was lost. Now the virus threatens to grow out-of-control.
You are the last hope to stop it. Having been miniaturized yourself, you now board the Omicron - a microscopic vessel designed specifically to counter the alien virus and stop it from spreading. Can you battle your way through each iteration of the virus and destroy the threat?
Our enemy is an alien virus, whose behavior mutates to mimic the four elements of water, fire, air and earth.
As part of its mutation, the virus periodically releases immune fragments. To neutralize the enemy you must collect these fragments. When you have collected enough, you will move on to the next infected area.
When you enter an infected area, the enemy spreads without paying attention to you. Once you collect a fragment, the virus elements will become aware of your presence, and will start to hunt you down until the next fragment is released.
Stage Types
Omicron has three state types, each with a unique goal:
- Resist! - During these stages, you will have to eliminate the enemy with your anti-matter cannon, while collecting immune fragments.
- Absorb! - During these stages you will not be able to operate the Omicron anti-matter cannon. Instead you will have to collect up to three Virus Cores to activate the Omicron's absorbing state.
- Rescue! - The virus has mutated and is working as a unified intelligence - trapping each fragment! You must blast your way in and free them.
- Collect! (bonus stage) - Collect as many fragments as possible. This mutation of the virus is non-lethal, but it will still try to slow you down!
Game Options
Omicron has an options menu that allows you to modify various attributes of the game for greater variety. You can also choose to play a simpler, 2.5K version of the game from this menu. Additionally, the left and right difficulty switches are used for additional options.
Options:
- Difficulty: Choose how fast area borders react
- Fire Type: Choose how to aim the Omicron
- Control: Choose how the Omicron will accelerate during gameplay
- 2.5K: Choose to play the 2.5K version of Omicron
- Left Difficulty Switch: Enable/Disable colored backgrounds
- Right Difficulty Switch: Virus Roots / Virus Cores appearance
AtariVox Support
An AtariVox, AtariVox+, or SaveKey plugged into the second controller port can be used with this game to store your high scores and game options. An AtariVox or AtariVox+ will also provide in-game speech and additional audio during gameplay.
Additional Information
Omicron includes the game cartridge and full-color, eight page manual. Omicron supports both NTSC and PAL television standards. Selection is made via the TV Type switch.
Get a Omicron Box!
If you'd like a boxed copy of Omicron, please select "Box Upgrade: Yes" at the top of the page before adding Omicron to your cart. Our boxes are professionally printed and include a box insert to hold your Omicron 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 |
Controller | Joystick |
Cartridge Size | 16K |
Programming | Simone Serra |
Music | P. Salathé |
Label and Manual | Nathan Strum |
The presentation is cool but the sound has a tendency to get anoying after some time and the small and wild grafix need full concentration (lots of very small elements). Also the 'luck factor' is high because you can get killed easily without doing wrong.
All in all a very interesting concept which might not apeal to everybody due to its depth.
There is a definite learning curve to Omicron and expect to spend several tries learning the nuances of each new kind of level. It took several play-thoughs for me to fully appreciate the strategy in the Absorb stages.
The only thing holding Omicron from a full 5 star rating is the graphics. I'm by no stretch a graphics snob. For me it's all about gameplay; great graphics are icing on the cake, but with Omicron the simplistic graphics actually make the game a little harder to play as you try to decipher the virus cores from elements and roots. All three look very similar and are differentiated by a flicker that can be extremely difficult to identify, particularly in a fast-paced game like Omicron. Use of different colors, sizes, or something would have helped this immensely. It's not enough to turn me off the game, but it does add an extra learning curve that I don't think the game benefits from.
So Omicron gets a definite recommendation from me for fans of action-shooters, particularly anyone looking for more than just a straight shooting game. The "one more game" appeal is strong and the game is fun to play, once you take the time to get to know the different levels of play.