A sequel to Atlantis, your mission is to gather specimens from different planets aboard your cosmic ark, which contains survivors from the city Atlantis. In the game's first screen, you must fend off waves of meteors from all four sides of the screen, pushing the joystick in the direction you want to fire. The second stage requires you to pilot the small ship from Atlantis' ending scene to the surface of a plent, using its tractor beam to pick up life forms from the surface. While you're near the surface, planetary defenses will be firing at you. If your ship is hit, a creature will be returned to the planet's surface from your shuttle, and you'll need to navigate the ship back to the surface again. If you take too long on the planet, a warning of renewed meteor activity will sound and you must return immediately to the ark to defend it. Cosmic Ark does not give a set amount of lives. Instead, the ark starts with 40 fuel units, which are lost when the ark is hit by a meteor as well as each time you fire, and gained by destroying a meteor and capturing a beastie on a planet. If you capture both beasties on a planet's surface before the warning klaxon sounds, your fuel will be topped off. If you run out of energy, the next hit on your ark will end the game.