7 replies to this topic

[Gabriel]

I need to know the name of an arcade game. My information is spotty, but hopefully someone can help me with this.

I played this game in the summer of 1989, of that part I'm certain. I THINK the copyright screen on the game said it was made in 1987. I'm not certain about that last part.

The game was a Galaga-like game. The screen was vertical. You controlled a ship which faced and fired upward. Enemies would appear on screen and you'd kill them all to pass the wave. I think some of the enemies were ball looking things, but I'm not entirely sure of that either.

One major difference is that your ship could move anywhere on the screen. You were stuck facing and firing up, but otherwise you had free reign of the playfield.

Graphics were similar to and at about the detail level of Gyruss, maybe slightly more pastels.

[MrRetroGamer]

Have a look on http://www.klov.com

That is the Killer List Of Video games and if you look around ( I think you can sort by year) you may see it.

[Nukey Shay]

That doesn't quite narrow the list of candidates down There was a veritable plethora of games made that fit your description. Anything specific you can think of? Sounds/graphics? Backdrop? Enemies/bosses?

[NE146]

Hmmm.. hard to say as there are a lot of vertical shoot em ups. The closest thing to a clue that we might have is your description of being able to move about the screen freely and it being a Galaga-like game with waves (as opposed to a vertical shmup like Twin Hawk or similar)

What makes it harder is your date.. 1989, by that time Galaga was pretty old school and we were already up to the point of games like Stun Runner, etc. And of course there were a lot more shmups to cloud the issue

First guess: Gorf? But that game is much older than 1989... Second guess, Gaplus (aka Galaga 3), But you can only move left/right in that game. Third Guess.. Galaga 88'? But you could only move left/right in that one as well.. hmmmm

Could you give more details?

[Starscream]

You can move in all directions on Gaplus well, except when ya get the little tractor beam thingy then you can only move left and right.

[NE146]

Starscream said:

You can move in all directions on Gaplus  well, except when ya get the little tractor beam thingy then you can only move left and right.

oh yeah! (I always avoided that game)

But maybe we have a winner?

[Starscream]

I play it every day so that is the only reason I know
Also, the enimies do appear all over the screen but eventually fall into the galaxian type formation. Only thin is, it's copyright is 1984 I believe.

[Gabriel]

I wish I could narrow it down more.

There were no bosses. It was definitely an old school game with level upon level of one hit wonders.

Gaplus looks like a promising match. But I seem to recall the player's ship being more squat. And I don't remember being able to tractor beam enemies to help my firepower.