1978-1983 arcade shooter countdown.

[Arvandor]

I looped the DOS version of Zaxxon when I was a little kid.

I didn't know it was so freaking colorful. It was in yellows and black for me =D

[320x240]

I looped the DOS version of Zaxxon when I was a little kid.

I didn't know it was so freaking colorful. It was in yellows and black for me =D

Which goes to show that Rob is just showing his (lack of) age...

[Rob]

I never played DOS Zaxxon because it's not as cool as SuperFly or Wheel of Fortune.

[doctorx0079]

This is basically a vertical Scramble, then. I guess the "Zoar" button is meant to replicate up-down motion.

The game is nothing like Scramble. Zaxxon is a closer fit, since its most distinctive feature is the altitude confusion. If it was like Scramble the screen would be changing its neon colors every 10 seconds.

It seems to most resemble another Data East game called Mission X, or as the AVGN called it, Mission ASS.

[Arvandor]

I never played DOS Zaxxon because it's not as cool as SuperFly or Wheel of Fortune.

I had

-PacMan
-Paratrooper
-The Black Cauldron (game is hard as hell, don't remember if I ever figured out how to "beat" it, but I definitely was at the end).
-Zaxxon
-Rogue
-And a borked version of alleycat (without a color monitor you could only wander around in the alley, not go in the windows for any of the mini-games)

[doctorx0079]

MOAR

pls

[Ed Oscuro]

This is basically a vertical Scramble, then. I guess the "Zoar" button is meant to replicate up-down motion.

The game is nothing like Scramble. Zaxxon is a closer fit, since its most distinctive feature is the altitude confusion. If it was like Scramble the screen would be changing its neon colors every 10 seconds.

It seems to most resemble another Data East game called Mission X, or as the AVGN called it, Mission ASS.

I should write something else completely off to provoke Rob into posting again

Anyhow, Zoar's similarity to Scramble extends as far as the weapon layout and the sounds / type of graphics. I agree that it's really nothing like Scramble otherwise, should've written as such.

But I agree with Doctor X (or is that Doctor-X?), Zoar is a lot closer to Mission-X. The only similarities I can see in the hardware is that they are both dual processor designs (but different CPUs) and have the same dual AY8910 sound. It's curious to me that the sound effects sound so much like scramble, but whatever.

[Master O]

The ship speed (of Battle Cross) is so bad that I have to question whether or not the emulation is accurate. I would be very disappointed if it is not since this is what makes it special. Even if it is slow motion emu, you simply can't keep pace with the enemies and must play very defensively. Things are bad when you have to remember to move a certain way to avoid dying to the first wave of enemies in seconds. There is no explaining the ship design, in combination with the speed of your ship and speed of the enemies. I can enjoy the precision required by only having one shot every 1-2 seconds, but in this game it's half that and the game expects even greater precision with those shots. Putting aside those technical details, the levels. Not sure what they want me to do in the third screen. There is an ant crawling around a ball. Am I supposed to wait this out or try to kill the ant that is always out of reach?

http://www.mameworld.net/maws/romset/battlex

info 0.61 [David Haywood]

TODO:
Accurate video emulation
Bugs:
Incorrect colors and/or palette: Based on this flyer shot, the color/palette of this games seems to be incorrect. The colors have remained constant since first added to MAME in 0.61. Sources mention the colors are currently by observation of screenshots - so I'm not 100% sure which one is right. If I had to guess, the Red and Green are switched, according to the screen shot from from MAME. Tafoid (ID 01839)
Game speed issue: Compared to earlier MAME versions (pre 0.112) - the game speed currently is way off the charts, nearly unplayable. The source mentions issues related to timing/IRQ issues. This bug is to recognize this is an issue, even moreso than before. Tafoid (ID 01838)

[Rob]

Sorry, I've been distracted with my new XBOX 2. For 4 months. Which is practically 2 weeks when you're (getting) old. I'll try to fight off the pretty 3D long enough for more.

[doctorx0079]

Sorry, I've been distracted with my new XBOX 2. For 4 months. Which is practically 2 weeks when you're (getting) old. I'll try to fight off the pretty 3D long enough for more.

XBOX 2, heh.

[doctorx0079]

I just realized no Time Pilot '84, waah.

[doctorx0079]

Another week, no more countdown. Gah.

[Rob]

I'll do some this weekend.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Will Sega's "Buck Rogers in the Planet Zoom" from 1982 make it into your list, Rob? ^_~

Since Rob isn't covering any laserdisc arcade shooting games from the 1982-1984 era, the ultra-rare "Cube Quest" laserdisc arcade game features some kick-ass & trippy polygonal CGI FMV backgrounds combined with sprite-based graphics superposed over that. Plus the fact that you use a trackball controller and a fire button placed to either side of the trackball. You could say that it was like playing a very early version of iS: internal section at best with that laserdisc game setup. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Rob]

Will Sega's "Buck Rogers in the Planet Zoom" from 1982 make it into your list, Rob? ^_~

I'll spoil it. It's the game I was referring to in the Ambush thing.


Homework assignment completed. Have some giant screenshots.

It makes me sad every time I loaded up a game and saw that it was vector-based. Don't have much to say about this batch except that I hate them all and that I never liked ice stages in platformers.

#88 Space Duel (1980)

Spacewar clone where two players can help each other die by being tied together.

#87 Major Havoc (1983)

This game tries so hard to impress with style alone. I thought it was so cool that you could play Galaxian while Ridge Racer was loading on the Playstation, but here is Major Havoc in '83 with a little game of Breakout in the bottom right corner of the briefing screen. You can destroy about four blocks before the stage starts and this carries over, so probably extra life potential! That is my favorite part. Then you've got a fairly stylish but dull and brief slanted shooting section that concludes with having to land on the green box in the distance. Best part about the side-scrolling mazes are the player animations, like the Sonic toe-tapping idle animation. Without all of that stuff, this is 20 seconds of Silpheed between the low gravity + narrow passageway + one-hit death obstacle navigation. Just want Breakout.

Screenshot of non-shmup section, of course.

#86 Asteroids (1979)
#85 Asteroids Deluxe (1980)

I would say that these are the most poorly aged classics on this list. I don't remember ever enjoying Asteroids even when it was the only 2600 game I owned. Deluxe is a little better in that it feels slightly less like rolling a brick around and you get shapes other than space shrooms. I'm probably throwing around the word clone too much, but throw Asterock in here too.

#84 Armor Attack (1980)

This game requires an overlay to see the game's invisible walls (can you tell that it needs something extra?). I tried downloading the necessary fix, but doesn't really matter. This is basically just Asteroids with helicopters instead of UFOs and without sliding around. For that reason this gets a bonus fraction of a point.

#83 Cosmic Chasm (1983)

You can choose a number of gates once you clear enemies from the room. The enemies typically pour from one or two gates and move around the pulsating block in the center, which makes the action boring as they are lining up to be shot. It's also another crappy vector-based game with a thrust command, so you will smash into walls. (Bonus: colors!)

#82 Solar Quest (1981)

Another one except the ice isn't as slippery.

#81 Zektor (1982)

Definitely wanted another one of these to play.

#80 Omega Race (1981)

In 2003... yet another hopeless vector-based-thrusting game. I guess if I had to say one thing that I liked about this one, it would be that I can hide around the corner and snipe enemies as they make their way around the gigantic rectangle in the center.

I'm not playing these for score, but you can if you want. I'm saving my efforts for King & Balloon.

[doctorx0079]

Rob returns!! Yay!!

Some people will not be happy with you for picking on Asteroids . .

[RGC]

Some people will not be happy with you for picking on Asteroids . .

Planetoids on the speccy was still great.

[Ed Oscuro]

King & Balloon hooray!

Funny to see all (?) the vector games get trounced at once. Sorry you had to go through that.

[Dragoforce]

I've played Cosmic Chasm quite a lot on my Vectrex, the arcade version looks far cooler with all the colors and stuff. It's not that crappy as you make it sound though. The objective is to the to the center of the maze, plant a bomb and then get the hell out before everything explodes. There is quite a bit of strategy involved since you have plan which doorways to blast before you plant the bomb in the center if you want a change of surviving.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

I've played Cosmic Chasm quite a lot on my Vectrex, the arcade version looks far cooler with all the colors and stuff. It's not that crappy as you make it sound though. The objective is to the to the center of the maze, plant a bomb and then get the hell out before everything explodes. There is quite a bit of strategy involved since you have plan which doorways to blast before you plant the bomb in the center if you want a change of surviving.

I didn't know that Cinematronics actually brought out an ultra-rare Cosmic Chasm arcade cabinet. It was so rare that I, personally, never saw it at my local arcades back in 1983-1984 timeline (during the Great Video Game Crash of that era). It has been shown at the California Extreme show in the past a couple of times...even if it was just for one day only. The CC cabinet that I saw/played with was in flawless and absolute mint condition and definitely treated with utmost care/love in someone's private arcade game collection alrighty. Miss it during it's one-day appearance and you might have to wait a couple more years or so to play it again on the real arcade cabinet setup, assuming that if it does appear at the CAX show again. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Mortificator]

Look at the fucking attitude this guy has. Don't you dare make his ass wait.

[Rob]

Briefly interrupting the vector losing streak and keeping this thing rolling so I can get to some fun games eventually.

#79 DevilZone (1980)

The grid is there to let you know when the enemies are going to get big and in-your-face (immediately). Most hated singlescreen attack pattern is the fake out kamikaze, spastically orbiting while dropping bullets a ship's distance away pattern. That's all the game's got.

#78 Space Firebird (1980)

You move in a slight arc instead of a straight line and speed up after moving for about half a second, slowing back down when changing directions. I don't like these unique features and, with all of the similar games on the list, failed experiments with the basics don't cut it.

#77 Borderline (1981)

A similar awfulness to Sega's Tranquilizer Gun, but less amusing. At first it tricks you into believing it is one of the choppiest scrolling shooters ever made. They, too, realized that was not going to work out so they then switch to a dirt-plowing singlescreen setup. The speed drops by half when there are about 5 moving vehicles on the screen.

[Rob]

Docking more huge screenshots before next page.

#76 Star Trek (1982)

More Major Havoc style points go-getting in this TV dinner portioned shooter. This all makes me feel like I'm playing a Game Boy quality X Wing, but I'm sure it was worth the time to divide the action between an almost detailed enough map and that space below it. It makes it look exciting.

#75 Star Castle (1980)

Another Spacewar!-style game where the objective is to destroy the central ship by breaking through its barriers. If you destroy every panel in a layer, it will regenerate a fresh one. The major hazards are the very small and fast homing sparks that are set free by destroying the barriers. The ship doesn't seem to be very capable of hitting or evading these small targets, so as it turns out this game isn't that fun.

#74 Eliminator (1981)

A similar concept to Star Castle, but instead of breaking the barrier you must get one shot through the opening. One for Gradius fans if you don't mind trading Vic Viper for a Spacewar! bumper car. If you take a while to destroy the ship it will exit and destroy you.

#73 Azurian Attack (1982)

A so-so multi-direction shooter until the final screen, before it loops back to so-so. Make it through the center of the half-invisible bullet pathway to HOME. It is a suicide mission to try and sneak through from the outside. You must start in the middle and cross your fingers while busting through the layers of rocks. If you are completely centered between the two imaginary lines, still might get hit.

#72 Cloud 9 (1983)

Not sure what the danger of rising water level is since taking a dip makes your character invulnerable to half of the attacks. MAME lists this game as a prototype so at least they had the good sense to not release it.

#71 Kozmik Kroozr (1982)

One of the hugest sprites and yet the easiest game on the list. Why that is: you can just shield yourself to the screen-ending beam up location and the shield recharges with every new screen. It is about five seconds of invincibility and all you have to do is move up for about five seconds.

#70 Bio Attack (1983)

Between each tunnel is an organ where frogs and other beasts have taken residence. After saving the first organ you get an area... easier than the first. Straightforward vertical scrolling, no diagonals or jumpy spear-throwing demons. They make up for this in the next organ, with sticky stomach lining, dripping acid and more enemies much faster than you. The final organ looks to be a sudden switch to a maze game, and it is a very simple blinking maze (eyelids), but you don't have to collect or shoot anything here. Yes, weird.

^Games all got beat by:

#69 Clay Shoot (1979)

Haha, move your gun about 30° to clay shoot. As limited and simple as Blue Shark, Destroyer and, like them, not all bad. If you hit multiple discs in one shot, you get bonus points and the game's congratulations. There also seems to be the occasional bird since shooting at nonliving objects gets boring after a while.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

That Sega released Star Trek: The Strategic Simulator arcade cabinet came in two different flavors: upright cabinet and deluxe sit-down enviromental cabinet. What really was cool was that Leonard Nimoy did the actual voiceovers for this game. On the arcade cabinet, Sega did an awesome job of capturing Mr. Nimoy's voice...comes through crystal clear and sharp -- no garbled voiceovers whatsoever. You used a rotary knob controller to move the USS Enterprise around on the map screen portion + used same controller to move the crosshairs on the relentless Klingon Cruiser ships. An upright SS:TSS cabinet was shown at the California Extreme 2008 show last summer...brought back some wonderful memories of playing it back in 1983-1984. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Rob]

#68 Battle of Atlantis (1981)

Least inspired submarine Scramble clone with only a few minor differences, like microscopic enemy bullets. No point to play when the real thing is available. And the other submarine Scramble clone that had some effort put into it.

#67 Colony 7 (1981)

Kind of like Missile Command with a continuous stream of fire that is highly abusable with auto. But you still can't avoid damage taking place to the barrier above your bases. Nothing changes from round to round except for a slight increase in speed. Absolutely repetitive.

#66 Eyes (1982)

Combining two genres that just don't work together. There is no incentive to go out of your way for bonus points. Because there is nothing to collect. No item or even a super pellet. Shoot the enemies and shoot the pellets. The enemies are all equally stupid, will all round a corner right into your fire. Between any two panels you are effectively invincible (yes, I still died).

#65 Pleiads (1981)

This game is a lot like Phoenix, from ship motions to the overall level structure. Games like Pleiads offer a 3-for-1 or 4-for-1 deal in level styles. I think the best games on this list keep doing the same thing, only faster and maybe adding new enemies along the way. These games want to impress you with blasting off and landing sequences. Phoenix doesn't have a landing sequence which is why it ranks slightly above. Endless milking in this gem, see if you can find it.

#64 Phoenix (1980)

This game was developed in Phoenix, Arizona so they called it Phoenix. That is the level creativity they were working with. Reminds me of Space Firebird and Exerion, two games I don't want to be reminded of. You can bust the larger birds to pieces, destroy both wings and watch as they still fly. The ship is about as funny as Moon Patrol's backwards jumping car because this one pumps and gyrates like an old-time engine when you move it around. Two slightly different variations of singlescreen shooting and the "destroy the core"-style boss stage, more endless milking (but harder to pull off than Pleiads).

#63 Dark Warrior (1981)

A rather standard single-screen shooter with the popular sub-task of defending your fuel reserves that are clustered out in the open. This is all fine except for the fluctuating speed issues and, again, an unusually slow rate of fire even for single-screen shooters.

[nimitz]

Whoa, Phoenix already, not sure I got why you don't like it...the game gets a lot better once you master the basics (the phoenix levels shouldn't last more than a few seconds)


and Bio attack is actually *almost* fun, I'd like to see a remake or a fan game from this one (and no not X-multiply).

[Rob]

I have played it more than the games below and around it, but it's pretty standard. I'd bump it up a bit, but I don't want to go and damage the authoritativeness of the list. I never change my mind (;)). Post a score for it.

[Rob]

#62 Defend the Terra Attack on the Red UFO (1981)

It's no minor accomplishment for a singlescreen shooter to be confusing and this is that. Why the Red UFO (?) starts to crack, or what criteria needs to be met to destroy (not defend) it, I have no idea. What is clear is that it's the same thing every screen and please ignore that Phoenix is better and placed lower.

#61 Cosmic Alien (1979)

Slow-paced Galaxian wannabe. The last alien can transform into a larger enemy (dies in one hit) and they shorten the distance between you and the enemy formation after a few screens. The only way this passes is by not failing horribly at doing something original.

#60 Gorf (1981)

The trail mix of single screen shooters. If you can never decide whether you want to play a mediocre version of Space Invaders (Astro Battles - btw, eye pain) or Galaxian (Galaxians!) or whatever they were trying to copy on missions 3 & 4, Gorf is your game. Also looks pretty cool in a screenshot (Space Warp).

[freddiebamboo]

Phoenix at 64!?!?!? But it's awesome!

Well, awesome might be going too far as I just went and played it for a bit and it is rather shit, but surely it should be a little higher

[Twiddle]

gorf -> gorp -> trail mix