Demons to Diamonds

Released 1982
Atari 2600

Demons to Diamonds was such an odd game. I've honestly never played anything quite like it.
It's mechanics were pretty solid, so it wasn't exactly a bad game. It was mainly designed for 2 players, but the single player variant was still quite serviceable.

You used the Paddle controls to move a ship/cannon/race-car/angryface/magic-carpet-like thing on the bottom of the screen, and player 2 controls one on the top. In the middle field, little demons start appearing that resemble the Recognizers with mouths, and slowly move back and forth. The goal is to shoot the enemies that are the same color as you. When a player destroys a same-colored enemy, a white diamond appears on the left or right side of the screen, then zips to the other side and disappears. Either player may shoot this diamond for bonus points. If either player shoots an enemy of the opposite color (red player shoots white enemy), a stationary skull appears and will randomly fire up and down in an attempt to destroy either player. If one of the colored demons reached the edge of the screen, it moved up or down one row and switched to the opposite color.

There was a respectable amount of strategy to the game when playing with a friend. You could sabotage your opponents score by destroying their targets, but that would also make the game more dangerous for you as well as it would create skulls that kill indiscriminately. Considering that diamonds were the most valuable targets in the game, players could also play more conservatively and attempt to simply intercept diamonds created by the other players kills.

Visually, the game looks terrible terrible terrible. The sound effects are equally terrible. The controls are great thanks to the Paddle controllers, and the gameplay itself is actually pretty fun, though it does wear thin after a while. Playing with a friend does make the game more entertaining, but both players may end up frustrated and bored once 2 or 3 waves are completed and the skulls are more abundant.
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