Space Wars

01.09.1977
Genre: Shooter Arcade
Space Wars is an early vector graphics arcade game. It is based on Spacewar!, a PDP-1 program. It was ported to the Vectrex in 1982. Space Wars was the brainchild of Larry Rosenthal, an MIT graduate who was fascinated with the original Spacewar! and developed his own custom hardware and software so that he could play the game. Cinematronics worked with Rosenthal to produce the Space Wars system. Two players controlled different ships. One button rotated the ship left, another rotated the ship right, one engaged thrust, one fired a shell, and one entered hyperspace (which causes the ship to disappear and reappear elsewhere on the playfield at random). The game offered a number of gameplay options, including the presence or absence of a star in the middle of the playfield (which exerted a positive or negative gravitational pull), whether the edges of the playfield "wrapped around" to their opposite sides, and whether shells bounced. Three other fascinating features were unique to this game. First, the game could not be played in "one player" mode; a human opponent was required. Second, the player's ship could take a glancing hit without dying, but would suffer damage; a cloud of loose ship fragments would break off and float away, after which the ship would be visibly damaged on screen and would turn and accelerate more slowly. Third and most memorable was that the duration of play for any contest was solely governed by the amount of money deposited; each quarter bought a minute and a half of play. A dollar bought six minutes, and for a ten dollar roll of quarters two players could play non-stop for an hour.

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31.12.1982

Fly your squadron of five ships around shooting down the enemy pilots. When you get hit, you simply lose one of your ships. After each round, you'll get a replacement ship which you have to maneuver into your formation or it's lost forever. In Tac-Scan, you control which direction you fly, though your planes stay in the same location of the screen.

01.11.1980

Star Castle is a 1980 vector arcade game by Cinematronics. The game involves obliterating a series of defenses orbiting a stationary turret in the center of the screen. The game was designed by Tim Skelly and programmed by Scott Boden. Tim Skelly also created a number of other Cinematronics titles, including Starhawk, Armor Attack and Rip-Off. As with many other titles by the company, Star Castle was ported to the Vectrex video game console in 1983.

31.12.1980

Rip-Off is a vector shoot 'em up released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1980. It is the first shoot 'em up arcade game to feature cooperative gameplay and the first game to exhibit "flocking" behavior. The objective is to prevent computer-controlled enemies from stealing eight canisters set in the center of the screen. One or two players control tank-like vehicles while game-controlled "pirate" tanks rush onto the field and attempt to drag the canisters off the edge of the screen. Enemies can be defeated by shooting or colliding with them. The game speed and difficulty increase with each successive wave until all the canisters have been taken ("ripped off").

01.03.1979

Starhawk is a 1979 vector arcade game by Cinematronics. Starhawk is a shoot 'em up with a fixed environment. The game was unique at the time as it presented the graphics in a pseudo-three dimensional way. Essentially, the game is a simple video game version of the Star Wars: Episode IV trench run. The game was later ported to the Vectrex video game console in 1982. The game is remembered as having quite advanced graphics for the time and being the first video game based upon or to have noticeable references to Star Wars.

31.12.1983

You are Frald Rancer and control a space ship which must journey from your home planet to outer space to defeat enemy invaders. Once all the enemies are defeated then return home. The game moves in a forward direction where the screen objects move towards and down to the player. Approaching enemy ships are small, in the distance, and become larger and move faster as they approach the player. The player controls a fighter at the bottom of the screen, which can only move from side to side. Shots can be fired at a diagonal, as well as straight, by twisting the joystick from side to side. At certain stages, ground targets will appear and can be destroyed by using the "Burn" button. The laser disc generated backgrounds are largely non-interactive during game play. They form the backgrounds on which the game is played on. Scenes do work in with the backgrounds, however that is the extent. Some backgrounds appear as they should have elements of interactively, however, were not used in the release of the game. These include scenes where the player is going through an asteroid field and asteroids fly towards the player. Another scene is in the crystal caverns, where there are many obstacles which could have been made to be avoided. These are only two of many scenes which could have had interactive elements. The game may have been decided to have been too hard to play with these background obstacles and computer fighters to play. Hence removing the background interactively to make the game more playable. The game starts with the player in Frald Rancer's home city, then taking off into outer space via a fly-by of the city. The backgrounds are very Sci-Fi and are fantasy themed. They are very interesting, more so than the game. The music from the laser disc also complements the laser disc video very well and makes up for the sometimes annoying, computer generated sounds.

01.03.2017

Use creative combat tactics and skill shots to earn high scores as you teleport through city streets and rooftops in an awe-inspiring ballet of bullets. Tear apart your robot foes and use them to fend off the enemy onslaught. Unlock, customize and test weapons before taking on challenges that put your newfound skills to the test!

12.12.2003

Warblade is a shareware computer game for Microsoft Windows and OS X, written by Norwegian developer Edgar M. Vigdal. The Windows version runs well on Linux under Wine. It is also available for retail in the App Store for iOS devices (in iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad versions). The game is a 2D space shooter in the vein of the perennial classic Galaga. It is a rewrite and modernization of a popular Amiga shareware game, Deluxe Galaga, which was written by the same author back in the mid-1990s. Where technically possible, the graphics and sounds are respectful to their Amiga origins.

16.10.2020

A small, fast-paced game inspired by SEGA’s "Fantasy Zone" series. Play through four worlds in frenetic arcade action as you help the hero, Opbot, evade aliens, enemies, and things from another dimension on their way to freedom!

03.06.2021

A single star fighter trying to save as many civilians as possible before they are overrun by a marauder armada. You'll need to gather new weapons, upgrade your ship, find resources, trade with other ships and more to overcome the challenge before you.

11.11.2022

Akka Arrh is a previously unreleased prototype game created 1982 for the arcade. It saw it's first release in 2022 as part of the the Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.

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