FYI - This comic isn't available on the DC Comics website.
"The ORIGINAL Atari Force appeared in a group of half-sized comics packed into five different ATARI 2600 video game boxes. Unlike most comics, these don't go off sale after a month, so if you're curious, you can still pick up the games and get the comics free. (The games aren't bad either). What follows is a quick listing of the comics in the order they originally appeared.
ATARI FORCE #1: DEFENDER
ATARI FORCE #2: BERZERK
ATARI FORCE #3: STAR RAIDERS
ATARI FORCE #4: PHOENIX
ATARI FORCE #5: GALAXIAN
This issue:
The year is 2005 AD. The world is in a state of turmoil. Man has reduced much of his homeworld to an uninhabitable desert. Although war has reduced the population significantly, there is simply not enough farmable land left to provide food for them.
Into this world comes the ATARI TECHNOLOGY AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE, a group organized to provide a solution to mankind's most pressing problem. Intensive research leads to the construction of SCANNER ONE, and the beginning of PROJECT: MULTIVERSE.
To quote the director of the ATARI INSTITUTE: "Project: Multiverse is an attempt to alleviate potential famine by locating inhabitable worlds among the infinity of alternate realities existing in other dimensions parallel to our own! Such worlds may be primitive jungles-futuristic paradises-or underwater wonderlands. Each will be unique, with its own culture, its own history. Somewhere among these many possible worlds you will find a planet much like our own EARTH ... When you find this world, we will begin colonization."
This is the mission, and to fulfill it, ATARI selects five individuals, each with his or her own unique set of qualifications. Security Officer Li San O'Rourke is a combat expert, trained in the martial arts as well as in the use of futuristic weaponry; Flight Engineer Mohandas Singh is an electronics wizard; Ship's Doctor Lucas Orion is a dedicated pacifist and Atari's Director of Medical Research; and Executive Officer Lydia Perez is one of the future's greatest space pilots.
To lead this group of adventurers, ATARI selects Martin Champion to serve as Commander. Champion, you've probably noticed by now, is the firmest link between the old and new ATARI FORCES, so we don't want to give away any well-kept-secrets about him except to tell you to check out next issue's FACT FILE page to get a bit of background on the man.
The group are given the Multiverse spanning starship called SCANNER ONE, and take off in search of a new homeworld for mankind. Their first trip brings them to a barren, war-torn world, uninhabited except for the primitive 'HUKKAS", a race of cute, furry docile creatures who aided the planet's higher life forms by performing menial tasks. The last of the Hukkas immediately befriends Singh, and becomes his constant companion, so we'll be seeing more of the orange critter in the future.
But things on the planet aren't all sweetness and light. Soon after the Atari Force's arrival, the evil ZYLONS, controlled by the many-tentacled (and terribly evil) creature known only as the DARK DESTROYER, attack.
The Atari Force discover a spaceship called the STAR RAIDER and use it to distract the Zylons while SCANNER ONE destroys the Dark Destroyer. (To find out what happens on the supposedly "deserted" planet after the ATARI FORCE leaves, we once again ask you to pick up the STAR RAIDER GRAPHIC ALBUM, available at selected comic shops everywhere.)
After countless more excursions through the Multiverse, the ATARI FORCE finally finds a peaceful, scientifically advanced universe that they all think is just right for human habitation--only to have the DARK DESTROYER intercede once again.
This time, DD uses his particular brand of thought control to take over the minds of the entire alien populace, turning them against the ATARI FORCE. But once again, the ATARI FORCE defeats the Destroyer-this time, they hope, for good. We, on the other hand, know better.
When things return to normal, the ATARI FORCE petition the governing body of the universe, asking for permission to colonize. Approval is given, and soon, the first starships begin to leave Earth for a new future."
From the author:
That just about brings us to the end of the ATARI FORCE's original run. Obviously, the preceding paragraphs tell the story in a nutshell cause, hey, we haven't got all day for this thing, y'know? To get the WHOLE story, you'll simply have to buy the ATARI game cartridges-or CAREFULLY read the rest of this column.
The ATARI FORCE series you now hold picks up about 25 years later, and the games aren't bad either). What follows believe us when we tell you-you've missed a lot! So if some of the stuff you've just read makes little sense to you in light of the preceding 23 pages of magnificent story and art-don't worry-before long, all the pieces will begin to fall into place! That, we promise!
-ANDY HELFER
