Descpription:
In Assault, the player controls a futuristic tank,
attacking the surface forces of an alien environment. While this is not a
very innovative concept today, or even the year of its release,
Assault's main draw was its innovative controls and perspective.
The tank is controlled by two four-way joysticks. The standard movements,
such as "forward" and "turn left", are executed in the same manner as with
other tank games, such as Battlezone (i.e. push both joysticks away for "forward",
pull the left joystick towards and push the right joystick away for "turn left").
But since the joysticks were four-way, two other moves could be executed.
Pushing both joysticks away from one another (i.e. the left to the left and
the right to the right) caused the tank to rear up towards its back end for a moment.
When in this position, the player could fire a lethal nuclear
blast instead of the standard shots when in the normal position.
The tank returned to normal driving by pressing the joysticks back
together, or by waiting a few seconds. If both joysticks were pushed
right or left, the tank would roll (or strafe) to that direction.
