This is Colony 7. Jarvian hostiles sighted inbound. Non combatant personnel are retreating to shuttle bay. We are preparing to defend position. City-wide shield is active. Gun emplacements are standing by. Special Weapon is primed. We will not retreat. We will survive.
Your mission is to defend Colony 7 from the evil Jarvians. Wave after wave of enemy fighters strafe the Colony's defensive shield, attempting to break through. You're in command of the Colony's defensive guns, unleashing a converging stream of laser fire at the attacking hordes. You must wipe out the invading craft before either the cannons or the entire Colony are destroyed.
Use your joystick to steer the targeting crosshairs around the screen. The defensive cannons will automatically fire salvo after salvo towards the current crosshair position. Your goal is to completely annihilate each attacking squadron, since even a single attacker breaking through can destroy your colony. If the situation seems desperate, hit the fire button to activate the Mega Blaster, your special weapon that, in one blast, will empty the sky. Use it sparingly. Each shot drains an entire Fuel Cell, of which the Colony has only three. If you succeed in destroying a squadron, it will soon be replaced a new, even more dangerous one.
Four different types of enemies will attempt to destroy your colony! The Fighter is the most common element of the Javian fleet, and several of them will attack simultaneously, first blasting away the Colony's defensive shield and ultimately destroying the colony itself. They will also destroy your cannons if you are not careful. When The Advisor appears, it will guide the fighters faster to their targets, so destroy it quickly! The Bomber will launch a guided payload directly at one of your cannons, so you must be alert for its presence and if it succeeds in launching its bomb, destroy it before it reaches its target. And when The Scout enters your field of view it will call in replacement ships, so be sure to give it your utmost priority!
Can you save Colony 7 from destruction?
Colony 7 was created by Manuel Rotschkar, whose previous Atari 2600 homebrew games include Gunfight, Seawolf, Star Fire, and Crazy Balloon. Colony 7 is modeled after the 1981 arcade game of the same name. If you've ever played the arcade game, you'll appreciate how Manuel Rotschkar has recreated the frenetic energy of the original on the Atari 2600!
Includes cartridge and eight-page, full-color manual. Available in both NTSC and PAL video formats (please specify above when ordering).
Get a Colony 7 Box!


If you'd like a boxed copy of Colony 7, please select "Box Upgrade: Yes" at the top of the page before adding Colony 7 to your cart. Our boxes are professionally printed and include a box insert to hold your Colony 7 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.
Author | Manuel Rotschkar |
Number of Players | 1 |
Controller | Joystick |
Cartridge Size | 8K |
Label and Manual | David Exton |
Colony 7 is another excellent game from Manuel Rotschkar. The action is first rate, and the controls are perfect. In order to free up the fire button to use for the Mega Blaster, the player's cannons auto-fire the entire time. This works perfectly since there's so much going on, you'd just keep the button pressed the whole time anyway. The difficulty level ramps up nicely, so you're not overwhelmed too soon, yet once you get into it, you can play for quite awhile. The graphics are nicely adapted from the arcade game (I'll admit I'm biased, because I worked on some of them) and have only minimal flicker, and the sound and music are excellent. I think Colony 7 turned out much better than Atlantis: you can fire anywhere you like; the enemies move all around the screen; plus there's the colony's shield, the Mega Blaster, different enemy behaviors, a title screen, and a lot of other touches that really add up. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better arcade action game on the 2600, so pick this one up!
But let me say that although I may have bought this book for its cover, I was pleasantly surprised to find a really good game.
Colony 7 takes the old 2600 game of Atlantis by IMAGIC & kicks it into hyperdrive. Everything in the old Atlantis game that could have been improved upon has been in Colony 7. As fine a game as Atlantis may be, if you own Colony 7, you'll never play Atlantis again.
There is something to complaint about... 1) is the title screen flickers. I don't know much about programing, and why it flickers. So I won't comment further other than to say, I wish it didn't. I thought about taking away a star, but it could have been intentional for all I know... :P
The other thing to complaint about is the all too deep rooted "comeback to play me again" factor... there's plenty of that mess in this one... sweeet!