Castle Blast on Atari 5200: A Retro Mothership Battle Shoot ’Em Up by Ronen Habot

Castle Blast, created by Ronen Habot for the Atari 5200, is a shoot ’em up directly inspired by the fifth screen of the Atari 2600 game Phoenix, where players face the mothership in a climactic showdown.

As Habot’s first Atari 5200 programming project, the game also served as the foundation for a tutorial intended to help new developers learn how to create games for the system.

The game debuted at the 2002 Classic Gaming Expo, released with a boxed package including a manual and cartridge. It also inspired a Castle Blast label contest hosted by AtariAge in April 2002. Copies could be ordered directly from the developer via the Castle Blast Development Page.

Gameplay centers on destroying the Castle housed on the underside of the Mothership. Players fire Vertical Trajectory Missiles (VTMs) upward to break through the Mothership’s shield before targeting the Castle itself. Additional enemy spacecraft fly overhead, offering opportunities to earn extra points through precise shooting.

Once the Castle is destroyed, the game progresses to a more difficult level. Here, players must contend with Focused Energy Beams (FEBs) fired from the Mothership while new star patterns appear in the sky, making it more challenging to track and hit airborne enemies. Clearing this stage leads to an even tougher level featuring ground-based tanks. To counter these threats, players gain access to Horizontal Trajectory Missiles (HTMs), though the primary objective remains destroying the Castle.

Control is straightforward: the joystick moves the player left and right, while the lower button launches VTMs and the upper button fires HTMs. With its escalating difficulty, varied enemy types, and faithful homage to the iconic Phoenix mothership battle, Castle Blast remains a notable entry in the Atari 5200 homebrew library.

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