In China Syndrome, players are up against time and a runaway nuclear reaction. Using the crosshairs, players must knock out atomic particles, trying to keep too many of them from splitting and causing a runaway reaction. The problem is, the atoms are propagating in three "zones," and periodic flashes onscreen herald the arrival of more particles to be dealt with; the particles can't escape their respective zones, but the player can only be in one place at a time. China Syndrome is an intriguing and somewhat underrated game that begs to be played with a trakball controller. It's not too fancy visually (it's hard to imagine a particle being represented by anything more appropriate than a big fat pixel though), but it doesn't need to be. The famous Atari VCS sprite flicker, however, is a problem when too many particles are bounding around on the screen, making it easier to lose track of rogue particles, and thus easier to lose the game.