Play Area 51 Online

Summary

Area 51 is a light‑gun shooter that first dazzled arcade crowds in the mid‑90s. Developed by Mesa Logic and released under the Atari Games label, the game thrust players into the secretive military base, letting them blast through warehouses, tunnels and other iconic sections. The arcade cabinet used a modified Atari Jaguar (COJAG) with a hard‑disk and custom compression, while the graphics were rendered on a nightly SGI farm borrowed from Atari’s own workstations.

Gameplay revolves around a semi‑automatic pistol that can be upgraded to a machine gun, pump shotgun and finally an automatic shotgun by hitting specific targets, and players can stash up to nine grenades for screen‑clearing explosions. Various alien zombies – some shooting, some throwing bricks or rockets, and tougher purple ones – keep the action frantic, and hidden objects trigger bonus rooms or warp shortcuts.

The title became a surprise hit, moving over 20,000 arcade cabinets and helping Atari Games stage a comeback. Ports arrived on PlayStation, Saturn and Windows in 1996, with the PlayStation version supporting the Konami Justifier and later re‑issued in Midway’s 2001 Classics line. Critics were mixed, but fans praised the sound design and the nostalgic feel of blasting through the infamous Groom Lake complex.

Storyline

The plot of Area 51 puts you in the boots of Peterson, a member of the elite STAAR (Strategic Tactical Advanced Alien Response) unit. Your mission is a covert incursion on the infamous Nevada base to stop the alien race known as the Kronn and the hordes of zombies they have engineered.

Throughout the campaign you must eliminate genetically‑modified zombie soldiers and the Kronn themselves while making sure no friendly STAAR operative is harmed. The game rewards careful fire; if only three of your teammates are shot, the scenario flips into “Kronn Hunter” mode, turning Peterson into a Kronn‑sent hunter tasked with wiping out the remaining rebels.