Free Online Multiplayer Games

Battleship

In the early 1930s, Salvo (also known as Swiss Navy), a game created by Russian soldiers, was produced by Starex Novelty Co. The popularity of Salvo led to the creation of other war games like Combat, Milton Bradley's Broadsides: The Game of Naval Strategy and eventually, Battleship. Early editions of Battleship have become popular collectors items.

Battleship became popular during the Cold War era because of its theme. The game was introduced in 1967 by Milton Bradley, which later became a division of Hasbro, Inc. As the technological age started to make a vast impact on the way people interacted, Battleship quickly went electronic with the addition of such features as sound effects. The game can now be found on CD-ROM as well as the Internet.

Five battleships occupy your homeport: a destroyer, a submarine, a cruiser, a battleship and an aircraft carrier. Each battleship occupies a certain number of squares on the grid. To place your ships, click on a ship, then on the grid where you wish that ship to be placed. A rectangular outline will show which squares the ship will occupy to help guide your placement. You may move your ships after you first place them, but you cannot change their positions once the game has started.

You can rotate each ship at a 90-degree angle by clicking the "Rotate" button. You must place each ship horizontally or vertically, not diagonally. When a ship cannot rotate because of the lack of available spaces, it returns to your homeport and you must place it somewhere else on the grid. When you are satisfied with the positions of your ships, click "Done."

Playing the game
Alternating turns with your opponent, fire by clicking on a square. If you hit an empty square, a blue explosion appears. If you hit an opponent's ship, the square shows a red explosion.

When you fire and hit one of your opponent's ships, the image on the left side of your screen turns orange to indicate which ship you hit. The ship stays orange until it is completely sunk, at which point it turns red.

Play this free arcade game online here.

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Missile Command

Dave Theurer was the mastermind behind the Atari Missile Command arcade game. The original concept included things like submarines and railroads, but they tended to complicate game play and so were removed. The result -- a relatively simple game of shooting down missiles with other missiles -- became a huge arcade hit. It went on to be translated to the Atari 2600 home video game system, and sold over 2 million copies for that system.

The game's popularity had a lot to do with its subject matter. Originally, the game was to be named Armageddon. The early 1980s were a time when many feared the threat of nuclear weaponry, and the thought of missiles falling from the sky wasn't too far-fetched. Thankfully, we're still here and can enjoy playing one of the all-time arcade classics again.

Object of the game
Your mission is to protect the six cities seen at the bottom of the game screen. You have three Missile Pods, each filled with 10 missiles, as your only defense. The enemy drops missiles from the top of the screen and it's your job to shoot them out of the sky.

Start and controls
Start the game by pressing "1" or "2" on your keyboard to indicate a one- or two-player game. In a two-player game, you compete head to head and each person takes a turn until the wave is over. At the bottom of the screen, you will see three Missile Pods, one at the left, one in the center and one in the right. Each Missile Pod contains 10 missiles. Between the pods are the cities, three per side.

Mouse (or Arrow keys) Move targeting reticule
Left mouse button or Z Fire from left Missile Pod
Middle mouse button or X Fire from middle Missile Pod
Right mouse button or C Fire from right Missile Pod
F11 Sound toggle on/off

Protecting your cities
(The goal is to protect your cities because if they are destroyed, they're gone forever, or until you get a bonus city. You get a bonus city every 10,000 points. When all your cities are destroyed, the game is over. If your Missile Pods are destroyed during the wave, you won't be able to shoot with that pod for the rest of the wave, but you will get it back for the next wave.

Your enemy attacks in waves by dropping missiles on you from the top of the screen. Some of the missiles, or MIRVs, will break up into two or more additional missiles. Fire your own missiles from the Pods so they explode near the head of the enemy missiles, preventing them from falling to earth.

Since the enemy missiles are a moving target, you have to "lead" them with your own missiles. If you target the missile directly, by the time your missile reaches the target, it will be long gone. It's also important to note your missile's blast radius. You can take out two or three enemy missiles with one well-placed explosion of your own.

Play this free arcade game online here.

Scoring

Destroy enemy missile	25 points
Destroy enemy bomber/satellite	100 points
Destroy enemy smart missile	125 points
Unused missile after wave end	5 points
City protected after wave end	100 points

As each enemy wave gets faster, the above points are multiplied by the wave number:

Wave One, Two	x1
Wave Three, Four	x2
Wave Five, Six	x3
Wave Seven, Eight	x4
Wave Nine, Ten	x5
Wave Eleven and Up	x6

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