Demon Attack

Demon Attack
Atari 2600 box art
DeveloperImagic
PublisherImagic
DesignerRob Fulop
ProgrammersAtari 2600
Rob Fulop
Odyssey 2, Atari 8-bit
Dave Johnson
Intellivision
Gary Kato
ArtistMichael Becker
Platforms
Atari 2600
Release
March 1982
  • Atari 2600
  • March 1982
  • Intellivision
  • October 1982
  • Odyssey 2
    • NA: March 1983
    • PAL: August 1983
  • TI-99/4A
  • 1984
GenreFixed shooter
ModesSingle-player, multiplayer

Demon Attack is a fixed shooter video game created by Rob Fulop for the Atari 2600 and published by Imagic in 1982. The game involves the player controlling a laser cannon from the surface of a planet, shooting winged demons that fly down and attack in different sets of patterns.

Fulop designed the game after leaving Atari, saying he was not properly reimbursed for his work on a port of Space Invaders. He co-founded the company Imagic in 1981 and began developing Demon Attack. It was the first game he developed that had a graphic artist, Michael Becker, who created eight-phase animations for the demons. Upon the game's release in 1982, it received positive critical attention for its graphics and gameplay and became one of the best-selling Atari 2600 games, and the best-selling game developed by Imagic.

Programmer Gary Kato created a port of Demon Attack for the Intellivision console which added a final boss mothership. The boss was similar in gameplay to the final boss in Phoenix (1980), a game Atari had exclusive console rights to. This led to Atari filing a suit against Imagic. A settlement was reached in January 1983, with Imagic being allowed to release Demon Attack for several video game consoles and home computers in the 1980s.