Play Dreadnaught Factor, The Online

Summary

The Dreadnaught Factor drops you into a side‑scrolling overhead view where a nimble fighter darts past massive dreadnaughts. Each pass lets you drop bombs on the ship’s energy vents; once all vents are gone the dreadnaught overheats and blows up, but you’re racing against a timer before the vessel reaches the protective Energy Field and threatens your home planet.

The dreadnaughts are bristling with guns, cannons, missiles and other armaments, so you must also target bridges to silence fire and take out missile silos to keep the ship from launching its own payload. Bombing the engines slows the behemoth’s advance, buying you precious seconds for another run.

Five distinct dreadnaught designs appear, and the game offers a range of skill levels—from Basic up to the tongue‑in‑cheek "You've Got to Be Kidding" setting—that crank up speed, fire‑rate and fleet size. The Atari 5200 port kept the same frantic pacing, and reviewers at the time praised the title as a sure winner, awarding it four stars.

Storyline

In Dreadnaught Factor, you’re faced with an onslaught of Zorban Dreadnaughts—massive battle‑cruisers that stretch 140,000 feet and tip the scales at 970 megatons, making them the biggest, most heavily armoured ships ever built. A whole fleet of these leviathans is barreling toward your home world, and the game puts you in the pilot’s seat to halt their advance. Your mission is simple yet daunting: use your ship’s firepower and maneuverability to shred the enemy armada before they can reach the planet’s surface.