Quantum, originally designed by Betty Ryan, stands alongside classics like Asteroids and comes from the rich and storied lineup of Atari, our long-running customer. We already helped Atari reimagine classic titles 50 years later, so our team was a natural fit for Quantum: Recharged.

Inspired by classic, simple, yet addictive gameplay, Quantum: Recharged is a vibrantly neon-colored love letter to arcade games in which you control an agile spacecraft with evasive tactics to trap and destroy enemies called Quarks in glorious arcade action.

Our task was to take the original 1982 game and remake it with modern sensibilities and new visuals, but the same punchy, tight, and thrilling gameplay. On top of that, we had to port it to various PC storefronts, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Series S/X, as well as the Nintendo Switch.

For the most part, working on this remake was right up our alley since we’re both familiar with the tech and tools built for realizing the prior titles in the series, and our teams are well-versed in arcade games.

However, the challenge came from fine-tuning the movement to make sure it’s true to the original, creating a better structure for controlling the game’s pace while introducing enough randomness to keep it replayable, and balancing the mouse and controller input, making sure both options provide an authentic, fair, and engaging experience.

We drew quite a bit of inspiration from modern arcade darlings, implemented the wanted features, and found what worked best for the Quantum formula of indirect combat puzzles through playtesting. Although not every idea made it to the final product, we found the balance of old and new that worked for fans of the original title and players who’ve never set foot in an arcade.

When addressing enemy spawns, we implemented enemy cluster configurations that have random values or value ranges, making the opposition more dynamic. These enemy cluster spawning configurations were used to form spawn patterns and entire spawning sequences for levels using configurable spawn timings and spawn orders.

Lastly, when it came to controls, for the mouse, we created a default mode that would make the player ship to follow the in-game cursor at a fixed speed to prevent the character from going too fast, and another mode called "direct mouse controls" which works in a way that Atari wanted.

We came up with an idea to fade out the ship's lasso at a rate based on how fast the ship moved. The faster you move the ship – the faster the lasso fades out. This allows players to experience full trackball-like movement without allowing them to create huge zones to catch enemies.

If you want to create big enough zones, you have to move your mouse at a similar speed to the regular fixed speed, which is used in a default mode or when using a controller

Now, you can experience our letter to the beloved arcade classic on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Series S/X, as well as the Nintendo Switch.