Demons to Diamonds is a 1982 action-shooter developed by Atari for the Atari 2600. Originally designed for the paddle controllers, players slide a laser base horizontally across the bottom of the screen (or both top and bottom in two-player mode), firing vertically at wandering demons. It features a unique risk-reward mechanic where shooting demons of your own color transforms them into valuable diamonds, while shooting the wrong color spawns deadly, retaliatory skulls.
How to Play
The objective is to rack up points by shooting demons that match your color and collecting the resulting diamonds, all while dodging or destroying the skulls that fire back at you. In the browser emulator, the original paddle controls are mapped to the keyboard: move your laser base with the arrow keys and fire with the Spacebar (Player 2 uses TGFH and A). If the movement feels overly sensitive, press Alt+L to toggle between paddle and joystick modes.
Tips
- Pay close attention to colors: only shoot demons that match your laser base’s color to spawn diamonds safely.
- Skulls can quickly overwhelm the screen if you carelessly fire at the wrong colored demons, making trigger discipline far more important than rapid fire.
- Grab diamonds as quickly as possible, as they will eventually disappear or be destroyed by stray shots.
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