In Laser Gates, a vast automatic defense computer has gone haywire, and players man the Dante Dart, an agile spacecraft, in a last-ditch effort to disarm the computer before it self-destructs. And what would an automatic defense system be without its own defenses? The player's ship must avoid making physical contact with anything else in the game, though the computer's force fields are the deadliest obstacles. The force fields can't be disabled, only avoided through careful timing. Other defenses are launched toward the player's ship constantly, and the only chance of survival is a combination of quick shooting and picking up every energy recharge pod in sight. Ultimately the Dante Dart must destroy four key components of the computer, making for some joystick-rattling boss battles. Very similar to Vanguard, which was also adapted for the Atari VCS, Laser Gates is interesting in that it's almost a "widescreen" game in that almost half of its display is taken up by shield, laser and fuel readouts, leaving the top half of the screen for actual game play.