''Up'n Down'' is a video game developed and published by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

. It was first released in 1983 as an

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

, then later ported to the

Atari 2600 The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...

ColecoVision ColecoVision is a second-generation home video-game console developed by Coleco and launched in North America in August 1982. It was released a year later in Europe by CBS Electronics as the CBS ColecoVision. The console offered a closer expe ...

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

, and

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 ...

. In ''Up'n Down'' the player drives a car forward and backward along a branching, vertically scrolling track, collecting flags and jumping on other cars to destroy them.

Gameplay

''Up'n Down'' is a vertically scrolling game that employs a

pseudo-3D 2.5D (two-and-a-half dimensional) perspective refers to gameplay or movement in a video game or virtual reality environment that is restricted to a two-dimensional (2D) plane with little to no access to a third dimension in a space that otherwise ...

perspective. The player controls a purple dune buggy that resembles a

Volkswagen Beetle The Volkswagen Beetle—officially the Volkswagen Type 1, informally in German (meaning "beetle"), in parts of the English-speaking world the Bug, and known by many other nicknames in other languages—is a two-door, rear-engine economy car, ...

. The buggy moves forward along a single-lane path; pressing up or down on the joystick causes the buggy to speed up or slow down, pressing right or left causes the buggy to switch lanes at an intersection, and pressing the "jump" button causes the buggy to jump in the air. Jumping is required to avoid other cars on the road; the player can either jump all the way over them, or land on them for points. To complete a round, the player must collect 10 colored flags by running over them with the buggy. If the player passes by a flag without picking it up, it will appear again later in the round. The roads feature inclines and descents that affect the buggy's speed, and bridges that must be jumped. A player loses a turn whenever the buggy either collides with another vehicle without jumping on it, or jumps off the road and into the grass or water.

Atari 2600 port

Sega released a port for the Atari 2600 in 1984 with jarring background music. According to ''Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design'' by Karen Collins, the arcade version's "bluesy F-sharp minor groove" was transformed into "a very unsettling version based in C minor with a flattened melodic sound" because of limitations of the 2600 sound hardware.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Up'n Down'' on their November 1, 1983 issue as being the second most-successful new table arcade unit of the month.

References

External links

* * {{IAg, atari_2600_up_n_down_1984_sega_phat_ho_-_bally_midway_-_beck-tech_009-01, platform=Atari 2600 1983 video games Sega video games Sega System 1 games Sega arcade games Atari 2600 games Atari 8-bit family games ColecoVision games Commodore 64 games Cancelled ZX Spectrum games Racing video games U.S. Gold games Video games developed in Japan

Gameplay

Atari 2600 port

Reception

See also

References

External links