Plaque Attack is a 1983 arcade shooter for the Atari 2600, designed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision. The premise is memorably odd: you control a tube of toothpaste defending a row of teeth from waves of bacteria and junk food — burgers, hot dogs and other sugary attackers — closing in from both sides of the screen. It plays like a tight fixed shooter that happens to have a dental-hygiene hook, and the core loop is more satisfying than the gimmick implies.
How to play
Your toothpaste tube moves up and down between the teeth and the oncoming enemies. Fire blobs of paste to destroy bacteria before they reach a tooth; enemies attack from the left and the right at once, so you need to shuttle quickly between flanks. A tooth that takes enough hits is gone for the round. Rounds grow faster and more chaotic with each stage.
| Move up / down | Arrow keys | P2: T / G |
| Fire | Spacebar | P2: A |
| Reset | F12 |
| Select | F11 |
| Pause | Alt+P |
Tips
- Stay near the centre of the screen so you can cover both flanks without crossing the full height each time.
- Prioritise enemies already close to a tooth — a distant bacterium can wait; one at the edge cannot.
- A heavily damaged tooth is one hit from gone, so when threats converge on multiple teeth, defend the most damaged one first.
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