Was he bullied in high school?
Did the Qotile murder his father?
What is the waiting period to buy a zorlon cannon?
None of these questions are answered in the manual.
(Need answer fast!)
Per TV Tropes, the answer’s in a comic book which came with the game.
Ray Kassar was the CEO of Atari back then. So, the planet “Razak” was home to the “Yar” race of aliens which were basically giant mutant horseflies.
(Yar and Razak were basically Ray and Kassar backwards.)
It’s less a revenge from Yar, more a revenge on Ray. (I actually doubt that the game designer, Howard Scott Warshaw, really had any ill-intent toward his boss, it was more likely a practical joke. Easter Eggs like that we’re common at the time and are still a tradition in modern games.)
Looking further, the Wikipedia article on Ray Kassar claims:
In 1981, the highly popular and successful game Yars’ Revenge was released for the Atari 2600. Howard Scott Warshaw, the game’s designer, got the names “Yar” and “Razak” by jokingly spelling “Ray Kassar” backwards. Warshaw claimed that the game was “Ray’s revenge on Activision”
The game originally had a comic book packaged with it (as did several other Atari titles). The comic book gives the background – the Yars are fighting against the Qotile, seeking revenge against them for having destroyed one of the inhabited planets in their solar system.
You can see the whole comic book here:
Yes! I love the dope for nerdy shit like this! Thanks all! I know I had the game, but I don’t remember the comic.
My she was yar.
Having just now read that fabulous piece of literature, I feel like I’m missing something. Why exactly to the qotile attack planet iv? Seems like the yar elders are hiding something…
Maybe it was a pre-emptive strike against an allegedly-peaceful race which has just developed a devastating weapon (the Zorlon Cannon)!
I bet the Yars kept ruining Qotile picnics.
There was an audio adaptation of Yars’ Revenge that reenacts the pack-in comic faithful, save for rearranging the chronology in a few places. The music is pure cheese; aside from the ropey casio-esque Atari anthem, there’s a New Wave-y theme that’s essentially a parody of The Buggles’ “Living in the Plasctic Age” with some vocoder thrown in, and a jingoistic folksong.
The real meat is the narration by the venerable Peter Fernandez (most famous as Speed Racer), who delivers the ludicrous tale with his usual brand of conviction.
There was also a second record from Kids Stuff that lacked any musical numbers but was instead a read-along. It takes more liberties with the comic than the other. It, too, was narrated by Fernandez, and well worth checking out. The audio isn’t really preserved on the internet yet, the accompanying book is.
This was most definitely one of my favorite 2600 games. It really had great action compared to most.