Cosmic Patrol

Portion of Instant Software advertisement
from the October 1980 issue
of 80 Microcomputing

Cosmic Patrol is a TRS-80 game written by Jake Commander, probably better known for his “Commander 80” column in 80 Micro. It was published by Wayne Green’s software company, Instant Software, costing $14.95 for a tape version and $19.95 for a disk version.

The goal in Cosmic Patrol is simple: destroy 15 vessels in the Quelon fleet before running out of E-units. Each game begins with 999 E-units. Each shot fired, whether it hits anything or not, costs ten E units.

Start of game

A Quelon freighter

The controls for Cosmic Patrol are straightforward: the G key to start a slow game, SHIFT+G to start a faster game, arrow keys to move, and spacebar to shoot. The shots fired are aimed at the firing sight at the center of the screen.

The goal is to move until the sight is directly over the enemy craft and then fire. This is far easier when targeting freighters, which always stay the same size, than for I-Fighters, which start out small and grow larger as they move closer. Once an I-Fighter moves close enough, it will always fire at the player. Each hit costs 50 E-units, and an I-Fighter never misses.

Freighter destroyed!

I-Fighter approaches

One quirk in Cosmic Patrol is that the playing screen wraps around from left to right but not top to bottom. The manual explains this behavior as “one of the oddities of the Macrospace bubble-universe which the ship’s drive units created.”

The end of Cosmic Patrol is a bit anticlimactic: succeeding displays the message “YOU WIN!” and failing displays the message “YOU LOSE!”

Centering sights on I-Fighter

I-Fighter is destroyed!

The Cosmic Patrol manual describes the adventures of “Commander Jake” as he attempts to complete his mission. It ends with this paragraph:

Jake permitted himself a long sigh and a moment of deep relaxation. But he knew that after a brief respite, he’d press the black firing bar to place himself and his ship back on the launching grid. Then, once again, that fateful decision: G or (shift)G—and he’d be off on a new mission.

Written by Matthew Reed | Filed Under Arcade Games · Instant Software · Jake Commander