Lifespan

Lifespan is a 1-player series of arcade games for the 8-bit Atari.

Lifespan is a game about living in which the player travels through Opportunities, Experiences, and Situations in 5 stages of life. During these stages, the player attempts to live life to its fullest potential against a clock of decreasing years.

The game starts with the Birth, represented by a spiral emerging from the blackness. The player can interact with the spiral's music during this stage, but Birth is otherwise not interactive for the player.

The spiral then fades, and the player enters a playpen representing Childhood. During this stage, the player tries to move 10 blocks around to capture 4 of the 5 rapidly bouncing character types in the corners of the screen. One of the remaining free character types when time runs out will become the player's character type. The number of captured character types determines the player's lifespan from 67 to 99 years. As the game progresses, and the player takes damage, years of life are lost.

The player now enters the Adulthood portion of the game, which consists of 3 separate mini-games. The player tries to make four passes through all 3 segments in an effort to collect all five initially glimpsed character types.

During the first game, the player travels through space, and can accelerate or decelerate. as they travel, they see different character types, with the goal to find one that aligns with the player's type in color and form. Once choosing a type, the player must travel through an opportunity gate, by positioning their pointer in the center of the gate. The closer the selected character type is to their own, the fewer common interest squares required in the next game.

From here, the player enters Situations & Conversations. This is represented by a grid densely populated by rapidly moving creatures. When three creatures come close together, they form a connecting link. The player must come in contact with common interest squares the same color as the connecting link. The player must enter the center of the conversation after acquiring common interest squares, and must stay there for 3 seconds, and you will be accepted into the group.

Finally, the player enters the Experience Corridor. Here, the player positions their character within a rapidly moving corridor. During the day, the player must avoid black enemies representing fear and doubt, while collecting the white characters representing hope. At night, all of these harass the player, and they must avoid all enemies. If the player survives the tunnel, the will restart adulthood, and try to gather the next character type until they have gathered all 4.