1 yars' revenge - actually learning how to play, scored 65,570 points

Dear Readers,

This is an iconic game and it came on the Atari Flashback Portable I bought recently, so I thought I'd learn how to actually play it!

This version of the Atari Flashback Portable is the 70 games one and it has a picture of Pac-Man on the box, as well as a 40th anniversary console logo. It's a great way to celebrate :)

So one of the games is Yars' Revenge. I've tried it a few times and it looks cool with that weird pixelly column down the centre of the screen and an obvious bad guy setting homing attacks on me, but it's only now I really figured out how to defeat it. Up until now I was only shooting my standard bug ship shots at it and they didn't work

After clearing so much of its shield, I have to get up close when it's not getting ready to attack. This loads and readies a cannon, which I then have to use the bug ship to aim at the bad guy without getting hit myself. When it hits the bad guy the screen goes WHOOSH in a bright pixelly explosion and it goes on to a variation of the same thing. It may then be moving or the shield might be a different shape.

Figuring out how to defeat the bad guy and seeing the explosions was pretty satisfying :)

Another thing that happens is the homing weapon starts getting speedier. I managed to play and blow things up until I got a game over with 65,570 points after a few tries. This is my best score so far.