Battle City

A tank game built around protecting one place

Battle City turns a small battlefield into a defence problem. You control a tank, but the thing you must keep alive is the eagle base. Enemy waves force you to balance hunting tanks with returning to cover an exposed approach. Namco’s original Famicom game spans 35 stages and includes simultaneous two-player play and a construction mode.

That combination gives it two different rhythms: a short arcade run through a prepared stage, or a shared session in which two players divide the defensive work. Building a stage changes the question again, letting you decide the layout you will have to defend.

Battle City · project README

A reconstruction with the stage editor intact

vgrichina’s browser version is a JavaScript reimplementation built alongside annotated reverse-engineering notes. The creator reports the full stage sequence, two-player mode, construction mode, high-score entry and the end-of-stage tally. The browser game opens directly; the cartridge-dump requirement in the repository applies to its disassembly tools, not to launching this web version.

Battle City · project README

Choose a mode, then share the keyboard

The title menu offers one player, two players and Construction. For a solo start, use the arrow keys and Space, with Enter to begin. For two players at the same keyboard, the second tank uses WASD and E or Q to fire. This is a local arrangement: sit together and agree which approaches each player will cover.

The web page also provides a directional pad, Fire and Start for touch input. Construction exposes stage and tile controls alongside the play area. Start with a normal stage to learn the space before changing its layout; brick, steel and water block movement, while the map also contains passable terrain such as ice and trees. Terrain is part of the defence, not just decoration.

Battle City · web interface · Battle City · input and terrain implementation