Attack on Asteroid City!
Zaxxon was the first arcade game to use "axonometric projection", which shows an image of an object as viewed from a skew direction in order to reveal more than one side in the same picture. For us arcade fans, it simply means...it was way cool and how Zaxxon got its name. Using your controls, you could guide your ship up/down/left/right through Asteroid City. If you made it passed the enemy guns, missiles, and force field barriers while blowing up gas tanks to refuel your ship, you faced the ultimate challenge. A large robot was waiting at the end of Asteroid City and defeating him allowed you to make your way back into outer space. After a battle with enemy ships, another city awaited.
Milton Bradley got in on the hot arcade commodities and released many board game versions in the 80s, including a Zaxxon board game in 1982. Electronic game producer Coloeco also released a table top version of Zaxxon in 1983. In 1987, Zaxxon 3-D was released to the Sega Master System (SMS.) I was one of the few who owned a SMS growing up and had the game along with the 3-D glasses. It translated well into the 3-D realm with the major change being flying your ship straight ahead. This game felt even more like being in the cockpit of an X-Wing fighter in Star Wars, that is, as long as your 3-D glasses held up. Unfortunately, mine glasses did not and my SMS was "traded-in" for an NES. In 1995, Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 was released for the Sega 32X home console. Contrary to the SMS game, it reverted to the traditional Zaxxon style of play and used 3-D graphics with a 2-D background. Overall, I think it's safe to say that Zaxxon is an important game in arcade history and defintely belongs in the 80s arcade.
Thanks to Arcade-museum.com and Wikipedia.
3 Comments
Wow! That brings back some SERIOUS memories.
ReplyDeleteI just want to know why the graphics in these clips suck compared to the awesomeness I remember! LOL...
Spent many hours at the skating rink playing Zaxxon... never did learn to skate.
ReplyDeleteZaxxon was an awesome game, definitely years ahead of its time. One of my favorite games to play, even on the old C64. Reminds me of a supercharged River Raid, or another C64 fave Raid Over Moscow.
ReplyDelete