Assault is a frantic action-adventure game where an alien mothership drops up to three enemies onto the screen at a time. Your mission is to shoot them down while avoiding their projectiles.
The gameplay gets increasingly challenging as you progress through levels, with later enemies introducing fireballs that chase you along the ground or split into smaller enemies when hit. Firing non-stop can lead to overheating, indicated by a green bar at the bottom right of the screen, which will result in a loss of life if not managed carefully.
With three lives available per player, your goal is to survive as long as possible while accumulating points. The game ends when you lose all lives or reach a score of 999,999. Scoring increments are rewarded every 10,000 points, with four players allowed at the same time on Atari 2600, released in 1983 .