Cosmic Ark 1982 By: Imagic

Overview:

Cosmic Ark is a game where you pilot a huge ship through the universe, picking up life forms from different planets. First, you must navigate through meteor showers and then fly a smaller ship to pick up inhabitants from the surface of unidentified planets.
Graphics are colorful but pretty much simplistic and not enthralling. You are piloting a giant flying saucer through space and a smaller version of your ship is used at the planets you visit. The Space-age sound effects that accompany your journey do not offer much, such as simple bells, beeps and buzzes. Controller response is good, but gameplay is kind of weak. If I were to fly on the Cosmic Ark, I would have to be the skipper and skip this game.

Directions:

In Cosmic Ark, you are flying the Ark through outer space, searching for planetary life, as waves of meteors assault your ship from 4 directions. You do not have actual lives or hit points, but fuel units which the meteorites deplete by striking the ship. Your fuel is monitored by a red meter under your score counter. Move the joystick towards the direction of the incoming meteor to fire at it and destroy it.
On the second board, you fly a smaller vessel from the mothership, picking up lifeforms with a tractor beam from the planet's surface. Fly over the erratically moving beings, and press and hold fire when directly above one, to pick it up with the tractor beam. When you pick up lifeforms successfully, return to the mothership and add points to your score and fuel units to the ship. When both lifeforms have been retrieved, you return to outer space to fend off meteors, en route to another planet.
These two stages repeat in an endless, if not pointless, loop. Each planet you visit changes color and the endangered lifeforms change in shape. When your fuel is expended, the game is over.