Darrell Spice has managed to do what I didn't think could be done on the Atari 2600 and that was to recreate the arcade game Bosconian, *with* the speech and without the need for the AtariVox to do the speech. This is a technological marvel. But that isn't all.
I've played the arcade counterpart and Mr Spice nailed it. I was pleasantly surprised to recognize the level layouts from the arcade version. The tunes are there. The speech is all there. The formation attacks that sprout up now and again are there. And beware that Spy Ship, because if that thing escapes, the proverbial poo hits the fan and the game protests with its "condition red".
The game is a lot of fun. The execution is spot on. Easily earns the 5 stars it gets from me.
BLAST OFF!
As pilot of the Space Fighter Draconian, your mission is to destroy enemy space stations – sector by sector – until they’re all wiped out!
ALERT! ALERT!
Your task won’t be easy - the enemy stations will relentlessly attack you with aggressive missiles and a barrage of defensive fire.
BATTLE STATIONS!
Formations of missiles will gang up and hunt you down. But if you take out the lead missile, the others will scatter!
SPY SHIP SIGHTED!
If you see one of the enemy’s Spy Ships you need to destroy it immediately! If it escapes, it will report your position, and then...
CONDITION RED!!
The enemy will throw everything it has at you. Can you survive long enough to move onto the next sector? Good luck! The galaxy is counting on you!
Draconian has all of the excitement you’d find in a classic arcade game! Featuring digitized voices, a radar scanner, enemy formation display, over 48 unique sectors, and much, much more! Draconian was written by Darrell Spice, Jr., whose previous Atari 2600 titles include Medieval Mayhem, Stay Frosty, Stay Frosty 2, and Space Rocks.
Gameplay
Enemy forces have had the audacity to invade our galaxy and set up occupation forces, operating from space stations that have been strategically placed throughout the five quadrants of our galaxy. (We’re aware that there should only be four quadrants, but interplanetary gerrymandering resulted in there being a fifth one.) Your mission is to choose one of the quadrants, then clear out the enemy forces, one sector at a time.
Game Options
- Features five Quadrants with sixteen sectors each!
- Built-in speech from the arcade without the need of an AtariVox!
- Quadrant Selection (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon)
- Includes user-designed sectors in the Delta quadrant!
- Starting Sector Selection
- Difficulty Level (Kids, Easy, Normal, or Hard)
- TV-TYPE Options (NTSC, PAL, SECAM Support)
- Built-in Pause feature
Draconian Poster
Nathan Strum's beautiful artwork for Draconian is featured on a 10" x 14" poster and including free with the game!
Additional InformationDraconian is a Melody-enhanced game that takes full advantage of the CDF mode in the Melody. Draconian includes game cartridge, beautifully illustrated 8-page manual, and a 10" x 14" poster featuring the Draconian box artwork! Draconian auto-detects NTSC, PAL60, and SECAM60 television formats. If auto-detection does not work on your system, you can manually override the TV setting.
Get a Draconian Box!
If you'd like a boxed copy of Draconian, please select "Box Upgrade: Yes" at the top of the page before adding Draconian to your cart. Our boxes are professionally printed and include a box insert to hold your Draconian 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 | 32K CDF |
| Code and Design | Darrell Spice, Jr. |
| Additional Programming | Chris Walton |
| Graphics and Level Design | Nathan Strum |
| Music, Speech, Sound Effects | Michael Haas |
| Label, Box, and Manual Design | Nathan Strum |
I got this game a few months ago after watching a few videos of it on youtube.
Draconian is a rather impressive port of Namco's 1981 arcade game Bosconian, which was one of the first games to feature speech, which is one of the first thing you will notice while playing Draconian. All of the arcade's voice samples were transalated successfully to the Atari VCS, and no AtariVox add-on is required to hear them, which is a huge accomplishment. Also, the speech doesn't interrupt the game at all!
The Goal of Draconian is to destroy all of the bases in the levels while constantly being chased by missiles. The bases are giant green fortresses composed of 6 pods liked together. There a two different ways to destroy them. The first would be to shoot the base's core when it is exposed. The second is to shoot all 6 pods. This method is harder, but awards more points.
Graphics wise, all the arcade's graphics had to be made single colored, due to the Atari's limitations. Fortunately, All of them look like their arcade counterparts and the game has next to no flicker. While the game took a small hit graphics wise, it is still a marvel to see on the 2600.
While its gameplay and sound are near arcade perfect, the content is where Draconian really shines. The game offers 4 difficulty levels and 5 quadrants, which are level sets.
Quadrants Alpha And Beta contains all the levels from the Midway and Namco versions of Bosconian. Quadrants Delta and Gamma contains brand new levels made for Draconian, and Epsilon is a randomly generated version of the game, which is totally awesome.
All in all, if you are a fan of Bosconian or space shooters in general, Draconian is the game for you. It is stellar port that surpasses the original arcade game and is one of the most impressive titles you'll see running on your VCS.
Congrats to every who worked on this game, which gets a well deserved 5 star rating.
Draconian is a rather impressive port of Namco's 1981 arcade game Bosconian, which was one of the first games to feature speech, which is one of the first thing you will notice while playing Draconian. All of the arcade's voice samples were transalated successfully to the Atari VCS, and no AtariVox add-on is required to hear them, which is a huge accomplishment. Also, the speech doesn't interrupt the game at all!
The Goal of Draconian is to destroy all of the bases in the levels while constantly being chased by missiles. The bases are giant green fortresses composed of 6 pods liked together. There a two different ways to destroy them. The first would be to shoot the base's core when it is exposed. The second is to shoot all 6 pods. This method is harder, but awards more points.
Graphics wise, all the arcade's graphics had to be made single colored, due to the Atari's limitations. Fortunately, All of them look like their arcade counterparts and the game has next to no flicker. While the game took a small hit graphics wise, it is still a marvel to see on the 2600.
While its gameplay and sound are near arcade perfect, the content is where Draconian really shines. The game offers 4 difficulty levels and 5 quadrants, which are level sets.
Quadrants Alpha And Beta contains all the levels from the Midway and Namco versions of Bosconian. Quadrants Delta and Gamma contains brand new levels made for Draconian, and Epsilon is a randomly generated version of the game, which is totally awesome.
All in all, if you are a fan of Bosconian or space shooters in general, Draconian is the game for you. It is stellar port that surpasses the original arcade game and is one of the most impressive titles you'll see running on your VCS.
Congrats to every who worked on this game, which gets a well deserved 5 star rating.
Dear arcade fanatic friends, buy. Instant buy. I'm telling you now, put this one in the basket. BUY! You will love playing Draconian.
This is the best space shoot out I have played in a very long time. I feel like I'm back in the arcade as a kid. Full of wonder and ready for adventure! I kind of imagine i am a Jedi when i do battle lol
You probably already know how astonishing the game looks but the game play and game design are astonishing. Solid collision detection. Silky smooth action even when throwing TONS of enemies onscreen all at once. Battles can be a test for even the best arcade warrior but there is a kids difficulty setting for those that like to cruise and chill.
I could go on and on but i can sum it up quickly and trust me me my friends, i tell it like it is
Draconian is a masterpiece. Buy
This is the best space shoot out I have played in a very long time. I feel like I'm back in the arcade as a kid. Full of wonder and ready for adventure! I kind of imagine i am a Jedi when i do battle lol
You probably already know how astonishing the game looks but the game play and game design are astonishing. Solid collision detection. Silky smooth action even when throwing TONS of enemies onscreen all at once. Battles can be a test for even the best arcade warrior but there is a kids difficulty setting for those that like to cruise and chill.
I could go on and on but i can sum it up quickly and trust me me my friends, i tell it like it is
Draconian is a masterpiece. Buy
Just when you think you've seen the best the 2600 can do, along comes Draconian. An absolute must have for any 2600 collection. Truly Amazing!!
I've long been a fan of Bosconian. It's challenging, exciting, and unique. This homebrew captures the spirit and essence of the game, and it is a great translation. I often wonder what potential can be in old hardware like the 2600, and something like this with smooth scrolling, voice samples, and really good graphics. it's like I get to take a peek into an alternate dimension where the Atari 2600 never died.
Draconian is fantastic, through and through. If you enjoy arcade classics, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. There's some amazing work being done on this console in the homebrew community, and Draconian is one of the games you shouldn't miss. Between SpiceWare's and Champ Games' releases, this is an amazing time to be an Atari fan!
Draconian is fantastic, through and through. If you enjoy arcade classics, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. There's some amazing work being done on this console in the homebrew community, and Draconian is one of the games you shouldn't miss. Between SpiceWare's and Champ Games' releases, this is an amazing time to be an Atari fan!
Great shoot 'em up for the 2600 with responsive gameplay, solid graphics, and unique sounds. Voice synthesized comments truly put this game on its own level, giving this port real credibility. Variability with levels is impressive. A joy to play and a must have for any Atari 2600 gamer in the collection! IMHO this is much more impressive than Space Rocks, and that says a lot.
This game is beyond belief. It's not just a spectacular game for the Atari VCS, it's a spectacular game in general, and one of my favorites to play at any time. The objective: fly around in space and destroy enemy bases and their smart missile defenders through more than 80 stages with constantly quickening and improving adversaries, while avoiding mines and asteroids (or was it space rocks?).
The gameplay is incredible, with smooth, responsive controls, 8-way scrolling/shooting, and un-stuttering speed while the VCS draws an ungodly number of sprites and parallax scrolling starfield and foreground sprites on screen simultaneously. Flicker control is exceptional even under heavy load.
The polish of the game is professional. It has a menu that not only allows you to set up the game's difficulty, select starting stage, or continue, it also allows you to manually change TV type if the cart fails to detect it correctly. The sprites are colorful and highly detailed, and the voice system sounds right in place with an arcade game of the early 1980s. The explosions are bright, boomy and satisfying.
Draconian has set a new bar in terms of arcade shooters for Atari VCS, is spectacularly executed, and ridiculously fun to play. I strongly recommend this one and give it 5/5 stars.
The gameplay is incredible, with smooth, responsive controls, 8-way scrolling/shooting, and un-stuttering speed while the VCS draws an ungodly number of sprites and parallax scrolling starfield and foreground sprites on screen simultaneously. Flicker control is exceptional even under heavy load.
The polish of the game is professional. It has a menu that not only allows you to set up the game's difficulty, select starting stage, or continue, it also allows you to manually change TV type if the cart fails to detect it correctly. The sprites are colorful and highly detailed, and the voice system sounds right in place with an arcade game of the early 1980s. The explosions are bright, boomy and satisfying.
Draconian has set a new bar in terms of arcade shooters for Atari VCS, is spectacularly executed, and ridiculously fun to play. I strongly recommend this one and give it 5/5 stars.
This game is so much fun and extremely addictive. It's a great feeling to destroy those large space stations and it never gets boring.
The number of things displayed on the screen is amazing, the sound samples blew me away and gameplay is really, really good.
5-star without a single doubt.
This game is in a league of its own.
The number of things displayed on the screen is amazing, the sound samples blew me away and gameplay is really, really good.
5-star without a single doubt.
This game is in a league of its own.
This is without a doubt, one of the most advanced Hombrews available through the site. The level of polish is incredible, this game has voice synsthesis right out of the box, no AtariVox needed. If you like Namco's Bosconian you owe it to yourself to get this game, it is a system seller.
Stop wasting your time reading these reviews and JUST BUY THE GAME ALREADY! NOW!! Mortgage the dog if you have to!!
I may just copy and paste this review for both Super Cobra and Draconian. I won't go into specifics about gameplay but both are equally incredible games. They are my first homebrews and it seems I have started with the very best of the best. I am so blown away by the quality and slick professionalism of both games. From the packaging, the gameplay, graphics and sound, everything is top notch. I know some of it is due to the tech of the melody cart but that shouldn't take away from what an incredible job everyone that was involved in these games has done. If you love shooters, Super Cobra and Draconian are must haves. So glad I bought these games and you will be too.
Draconian is one of the best 2600 games I've ever played. As a longtime Bosconian fan, I was thrilled to see it reproduced so accurately. If for some reason you're on the fence about buying a copy, time to get off the fence and add it to your next order. I can't recommend it enough!
This game is simply a technical marvel for the Atari 2600! Honestly the graphics, amount of stuff on the screen at once, a scrolling starfield background, and the speech! All of this without any real slowdown and very minimal flicker makes this game not only one of the best homebrews to be released for the venerable VCS but one of the best (Top 10) games released for this system period! Very simple one button controls insure that any deaths you encounter in this game are your fault and not the game. Highly recommended!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOEic1uAFdI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOEic1uAFdI
Was pleasantly surprised when this gem popped up in development a while ago. I played Bosconian whenever I could BITD and always preferred its style of gameplay over Sinistar's.
Draconian for the VCS has a beautiful animated starfield background, plenty of things to blow up such as space stations, space turds and enemies - that all occupy the screen at once (nearly flicker-free I might add!) and help make this one of the more frantic shooters ever for the VCS. I especially like how your fighter is outfitted with laser canons fore AND aft. Allows for simultaneous shooting, which during those tense moments you're being chased and trying to out-maneuver, really comes in handy.
Level progression and design seem well balanced and 'just right' to me too. Attention to detail is obvious throughout. Everything is beautifully drawn, speech is rendered nicely and the tiny radar screen is effective as well.
Draconian has a particularly addictive arcade quality to it and with its high-score retention and option to continue while your machine is left on, keeps you coming back for more and more. You can believe all the hype, reviews and gameplay vids because Draconian *is* that great of a game!
Draconian for the VCS has a beautiful animated starfield background, plenty of things to blow up such as space stations, space turds and enemies - that all occupy the screen at once (nearly flicker-free I might add!) and help make this one of the more frantic shooters ever for the VCS. I especially like how your fighter is outfitted with laser canons fore AND aft. Allows for simultaneous shooting, which during those tense moments you're being chased and trying to out-maneuver, really comes in handy.
Level progression and design seem well balanced and 'just right' to me too. Attention to detail is obvious throughout. Everything is beautifully drawn, speech is rendered nicely and the tiny radar screen is effective as well.
Draconian has a particularly addictive arcade quality to it and with its high-score retention and option to continue while your machine is left on, keeps you coming back for more and more. You can believe all the hype, reviews and gameplay vids because Draconian *is* that great of a game!
This game is a site to behold. It looks, sounds and feels like an actual arcade game. And for all you CIB collectors, the box, manual and label designs are simply stunning. The quality of the gameplay is nearly matched by the quality of the packaging. This game deserves to be played on actual hardware and everyone should own a copy of it.
An all-around A effort!
An all-around A effort!
WOW.unreal! I cannot believe this is an Atari 2600 game. There are games to have for the 2600.this is one you must have. Gameplay is awesome. I thought AA could not beat Space Rocks for the best 2600 game. This is tops in my book. 5 Space Stations out of 5!!!
Absolutely incredible port of the arcade game. Easily discernible voice sample play while the game is in action.absolutely amazing. Attention to detail is apparent which results in an accurate port of the arcade. New levels along with a random generated zone add lots of play value. You won't believe that your 2600 is producing what your eyes and ears are witnessing!
I have to admit, this was more of an impulse buy because it was being rolled out at the PGRE, having no experience with Bosconian in the past. I'm glad I shelled out the cash to get this game.
The gameplay is absolutely amazing. The controls are solid. The enemies look great. It is as impressive as the pictures you see online.
AtariAge continues to raise the bar with each homebrew. needless to say, this game gets 5 stars.
The gameplay is absolutely amazing. The controls are solid. The enemies look great. It is as impressive as the pictures you see online.
AtariAge continues to raise the bar with each homebrew. needless to say, this game gets 5 stars.
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube