Quantum

Some games are destined for greatness and some, through no fault of their own, are bound for obscurity. Defender, Asteroids, Pac-Man… all great games that were undoubtedly in the right place at precisely the right time. Then, you have the likes of Reactor, Major Havoc and, yes, Quantum… all equally exceptional games but sadly never likely to trouble a “classic” compilation for your favourite console anytime soon.

Quantum became something of a holy grail game for me. Manufactured by Atari in embarrassingly low numbers (500), never imported to the UK, blessed with exceptional cabinet artwork, designed for a colour vector monitor and unashamedly, deliciously, abstract. It was that last point that really drew me to it, fuelled by a flyer that some tease at Atari sent me long ago. The seemingly random scrawl of lines, dots and shapes onscreen was utterly fascinating. It really did (and still does) look unlike anything else I had ever seen or played.

Er. Well that’s nice and clear, then.

Videogames at their purest are bursting with possibilities. They can literally be about anything. Quantum positively revels in this lack of restriction. As with Qix or Tetris, it is a game solely defined by a unique, otherworldly logic. The only clear points of inspiration are an unhealthy fascination with subatomic particles and the innocent joy that can be had from playing with sparklers. Indeed, the high-score entry recreates the artful pastime of writing your name – bright vectors on a screen for the inky night air.

Quantum’s great strength is its simplicity. In direct opposition to something like Defender, the only control is a single trackball. This gives it an immediacy that cleverly counteracts the esoteric nature of the gameplay. The real joy of Quantum is in the expressiveness of that control. It just *feels* great to encircle the molecular monsters drifting around the screen with your sparkler. As the later levels fill the screen with Pulsars, Positrons, Triphons and other subatomic sorts, it becomes the sternest test of dexterity and timing. It is a game that demands and rewards a virtuoso performance from the player.

Phwooooar. She could surround our Positrons, anytime.
Even if she is a bit like your mum’s mate from the ‘70s.

Even at the time of release, in 1982, Quantum harked back to the purer genre-loose videogame era of only a year or two previously. It was doomed to failure in an environment that couldn’t get enough of Pole Position and Donkey Kong. The public wanted games they could understand within 30 seconds of pressing Player 1. Quantum, in all its abstract glory was defiantly never going to fill that role.

Emulation has revived this rarest (and most expensive) of Atari’s production games, but as with so many of their classic coin-ops (Star Wars, Tempest, Missile Command) it’s crippled by the uniqueness of its controller. The whole game is built around the ergonomics of the trackball. Without it, Quantum is an exercise in frustration; but with it, you have the most freeform, playful and artistic game ever placed in an arcade.

Now, where the hell am I going to find a spare $3500 from?

FUSEBALL, September 2004.

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