YARS' REVENGE
• EASTER EGG: Hit a swirl in mid-air with the cannon. Then find the “Ghost of YAR” (a black, vertical line that appears behind the explosion graphics – picture #1 and video) and position yourself on the lower third of it. If done right, when the explosion ends, the game will stop and the letters “HSWWSH” (for Howard Scott Warshaw) will appear in place of where “SELECT” normally would be (picture #2). {Steve Haubner or Michael Finnin?} Perhaps Warshaw had to use all 6 letters? An alternate method of triggering the letters is, instead of positioning yourself on the lower third, simply press SELECT.
• EASTER EGG: A prototype version exists, dated 9-1-81, that has a few differences
• EASTER EGG: Howard also states that the original method of hiding his initials was harder to reveal. It required both players (in a 2-player game) to kill themselves off w/o scoring any points, and they also had to die against the very left side of the screen (sometimes you would only get within a couple of pixels of the side and had to wiggle to get to the absolute edge).
• HIDDEN MESSAGE: According to programmer Howard Scott Warshaw, in order for his name choice to be selected by Marketing, he cleverly worked Ray Kassar’s name into the title (“Yar” is “Ray” spelled backwards), as well as the storyline - the accompanying comic states the game is set in the Razak solar system.
• 1st VCS game to display programming code on the screen. The Neutral Zone (also referred to as the Rainbow Ion Zone in ads) is comprised of actual game code, which is laid out vertically, and counter-scrolling over itself (along with some X-Y and random color processing).
• With the Ultimate Yars game variations (6 and 7), the difficulty doesn’t reset once you roll the score, but instead stays at the highest level. {Greg Degeneffe}
• BUG: The Quotile’s swirl graphics are comprised of 3 different images that cycle, giving it the appearance of spinning. One of the images has an extra pixel in the lower-right area (pictures #3 and #4).
• BUG: If you hit a swirl in mid-air when it’s close to the top or bottom edge of the screen, the game reacts as though the Qotile was hit, so you only get 1,000 points, and not the 6,000 points or an additional life.
• FRYING: Creates a game with no neutral zone or Qotile shield. Also, you’ll be invisible, but you can still get the cannon, and you can still be killed. {Eric Noss}
