''Zarzon'' (, ), also known as ''Satan of Saturn'' (), is a
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
fixed shooter
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a Video game genre, sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certai ...
arcade game developed and manufactured by
SNK
is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...
and licensed to
Taito
is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...
for North American release. The gameplay is a variation of ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...
''.
[version for 'Zarzon']
/ref>
Gameplay
The goal is to fly a spaceship to Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
, then destroy as many Satans as possible. Additional bonus points can be accumulated by destroying the comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
or attacking dragonflies. An additional spaceship is rewarded if the players score reaches 5,000 or 10,000 points. If the attacking UFOs or enemy rockets are destroyed points will be scored. The game progresses through 4 different screens.
The arcade cabinet has one joystick to move the spaceship left to right and guide the missiles.
Technical details
The game ran on the SNK 6502 arcade system board
An arcade video game takes player input from its controls, processes it through electrical or computerized components, and displays output to an electronic monitor or similar display. Most arcade video games are coin-operated, housed in an arc ...
.Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
''.
Legacy
The ''Zarzon'' upright arcade cabinet
An arcade cabinet, also known as an arcade machine or a coin-op cabinet or coin-op machine, is the housing within which an arcade game's electronic hardware resides. Most cabinets designed since the mid-1980s conform to the Japanese Amusement Ma ...
appeared in the 1983 film ''Joysticks
A joystick, sometimes called a flight stick, is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. A joystick, also known as the control column, is the principal cont ...
''.
References
External links
Zarzon
ZarzonSatan of Saturn
at Coinop.org
at IGN
1981 video games
Arcade video games
Arcade-only video games
Fixed shooters
SNK games
Video games developed in Japan
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