|
Mad Planets
''Mad Planets'' is a multidirectional shooter released in arcades in 1983 by Gottlieb. The player controls a spaceship, which can be moved and rotated independently, to fend off angry planets and moons attacking from all sides. It was designed and programmed by Kan Yabumoto with art by Jeff Lee and sound by David D. Thiel. Lee and Thiel previously worked on ''Q*bert'' for Gottlieb, a game that was inspired by a pattern of hexagons implemented by Yabumoto. Kan Yabumoto died in 2017 of a degenerative lung disease. Gameplay The player uses a flight-style joystick to move a spaceship around a dark starfield, a rotary knob to orient the ship, and a trigger on the stick to fire. At the beginning of a level, planets appear and begin growing. They can be destroyed prior to their reaching full size and sprouting moons. If a wave is completed by destroying all planets before they reach full size, a substantial bonus is awarded. Once a planet has moons, it is shielded until all its moons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gottlieb
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. History The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was located at 165 W. Lake Street in Northlake, IL. A subassembly plant was located in Fargo, ND. The company was established by David Gottlieb in 1927, initially producing pinball machines while later expanding into various other games including pitch-and-bats, bowling games, and eventually video arcade games (notably '' Reactor'' and '' Q*bert ''and, leading to the demise of Mylstar, M*A*C*H*3.) Like other manufacturers, Gottlieb first made mechanical pinball machines, including the first successful coin-operated pinball machine '' Baffle Ball'' in 1931. Electromechanical machines were produced starting in 1935. The 1947 development of player-actuated, solenoid-driven 2-inch bats called "flippers" revolutionized the industry. Players now had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time, with independent estimates placing the number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units. Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for . Preceded by the VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware. The C64 dominated the low-end computer market (except in the UK and Japan, lasting only about six months in Japan) for most of the later years of the 1980s. For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two mil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gottlieb Video Games
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. History The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was located at 165 W. Lake Street in Northlake, IL. A subassembly plant was located in Fargo, ND. The company was established by David Gottlieb in 1927, initially producing pinball machines while later expanding into various other games including pitch-and-bats, bowling games, and eventually video arcade games (notably '' Reactor'' and ''Q*bert ''and, leading to the demise of Mylstar, M*A*C*H*3.) Like other manufacturers, Gottlieb first made mechanical pinball machines, including the first successful coin-operated pinball machine ''Baffle Ball'' in 1931. Electromechanical machines were produced starting in 1935. The 1947 development of player-actuated, solenoid-driven 2-inch bats called "flippers" revolutionized the industry. Players now had th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arcade Video Games
Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * Arcade (architecture), a series of adjoining arches * Shopping mall, one or more buildings forming a complex of shops, also sometimes called a shopping arcade Arcade or The Arcade may also refer to: Places Greece * Arcades (Crete), a town and city-state of ancient Crete, Greece Italy * Arcade, Italy, a town and commune in the region of Veneto United States * Arcade Building (Asheville, North Carolina) * Arden-Arcade, California * Arcade, Georgia, a city in Jackson County * Arcade (village), New York * Arcade (town), New York * The Arcade (Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts), a historic site in Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts * The Arcade (Providence, Rhode Island), a historic shopping center * Arcade, Texas Arts and entertainment Bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1983 Video Games
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the true Internet). * January 24 – Twenty-five members of the Red Brigades are sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1978 murder of Italian politician Aldo Moro. * January 25 ** High-ranking Nazism, Nazi war crime, war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia. ** IRAS is launched from Vandenberg AFB, to conduct the world's first all-sky infrared survey from space. February * February 2 – Giovanni Vigliotto goes on trial on charges of polygamy involving 105 women. * February 3 – Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Fraser is granted a double dissolution of both houses of parliament, for 1983 Australian federal election, elections on March 5, 1983. As Fraser is being granted the dissolution, Bill Hayden ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mega Apocalypse
''Mega Apocalypse'' is a multidirectional shooter written by Simon Nicol for the Commodore 64 and ported to the BBC Micro, Amstrad CPC, and ZX Spectrum. It is the sequel to '' Crazy Comets''. Both games are clones of Gottlieb's 1983 arcade game '' Mad Planets''. The music is by Rob Hubbard Rob Hubbard (born 1955 in Kingston upon Hull, England) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, such as the Commodore 64. Early life Hubbard first started playing music at age seve .... References External links Mega Apocalypse at Lemon64 1987 video games Commodore 64 games Amstrad CPC games ZX Spectrum games Multidirectional shooters BBC Micro and Acorn Electron games Video game clones Video games scored by David Whittaker Video games scored by Rob Hubbard Video games developed in the United Kingdom Multiplayer and single-player video games Martech games {{Shmup-videogame-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crazy Comets
''Crazy Comets'' is a 1985 multidirectional shooter programmed by Simon Nicol for the Commodore 64 and published by Martech in 1985. The game is a clone of Gottlieb's 1983 ''Mad Planets'' arcade game, even using the same logo treatment with "Crazy" and "Comets" replacing "Mad" and "Planets" respectively. The two music tracks and the sound effects were produced by Rob Hubbard. ''Crazy Comets'' was followed by a 1987 sequel, also programmed by Nicol, ''Mega Apocalypse''. Reception ''Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...'' praised the game for being an uncomplicated example of the genre. ''Happy Computer'' said the music alone was worth the price of admission. References External links * {{Shmup-videogame-stub 1985 video games Commodore 64 games Commodore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martech
Martech Games was an early video game publisher based in Pevensey Bay between 1982 and 1989. It published a number of successful video games for the emerging home computer games marketplace, including BBC Model B, Sinclair ZX81, Sinclair Spectrum, MSX, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 16, Commodore 64, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga. Martech was an early entrant into license-endorsed games, signing deals with personalities such as Eddie Kidd, Geoff Capes, Brian Jacks, Samantha Fox, Nigel Mansell, toy endorsed games, such as ZOIDS, book/comic characters, such as Tarzan and Slaine, and movies, such as ''Jaws''. The company won several industry awards for innovative game design and marketing campaigns. In the late 1980s the company embarked on an ambitious program of expansion by opening two games development studios, one in Brighton and one in Waterford, Ireland. In 1989 a number of critical development delays in both new studios led to the closure of the company. History Martech Gam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tempest (video Game)
''Tempest'' is a 1981 arcade game by Atari Inc., designed and programmed by Dave Theurer. It takes place on a three-dimensional surface divided into lanes, sometimes as a closed tube, and viewed from one end. The player controls a claw-shaped "blaster" that sits on the edge of the surface, snapping from segment to segment as a rotary knob is turned. ''Tempest'' was one of the first games to use Atari's Color-QuadraScan vector display technology. It was also the first to let players choose their starting level (a system Atari called "SkillStep"). This feature increases the maximum starting level depending on the player's performance in the previous game, essentially allowing the player to continue the previous game. ''Tempest'' was one of the first video games with a progressive level design where the levels themselves varied rather than giving the player the same layout with increasing difficulty. Gameplay The goal in ''Tempest'' is to survive for as long as possible, and sco ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeff Lee (video Game Artist)
Jeff Lee (born 1952 in Elkhart, Indiana) is the original video artist at D. Gottlieb and Company. He is best known for creating the character of Q*Bert, the popular arcade game from 1982. He also produced the video graphics for Cave Man (a video-pinball hybrid), Mad Planets, Krull, Q*Bert's Qubes, The Three Stooges, Quizimodo, M.A.C.H. 3 and Us vs Them. He also developed graphics for a number of video games that were never manufactured, such as Protector, Tylz and Wiz Warz. For independent arcade producers he created artwork for Lotto Fun and Double Cheese. During this period he also produced game graphics for the Sega Genesis system Home Alone, Premier Technology (Exterminator) and Maze Wars+ for Macromind. In print, Lee illustrated the playing cards of the 1986 publication of OD by the Avalon Hill Game Company. Lee illustrated an article by Marc Canter, "The New Workstation", which appeared in "CD ROM: The New Papyrus" (Microsoft Press, 1986). In 1993 Lee illustrated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
