by Bally/Midway, 1980
STATUS: No Longer In the Collection
Post from old site last updated 5/19/2005
Description of game:
Black and White Midway game. Very simple to play. You fire lasers from a center located base ship, trying to defend you base from attacks from four different directions. The game consists of five very large control buttons - one fire button and four aiming buttons. The game gets faster and faster as it goes, making it easy to approach but hard to get a very high score.
Different games that this cabinet plays:
Although this game is from the same platform as Gorf and Wizard of Wor, it only plays Space Zap.
How I got it:
Believe it or not, this was my very first arcade game that I owned. I got it when a skating rink that I worked at in college went out of business. If any of you went to Purdue, you may remember the old Skate-A-Way. I worked there for a couple years. This game was actually given to the owners of the rink by the local operator, and it sat in their private office for years. I remember the rink had a pretty good arcade. We had a great time playing Gondomania, but it was also the time that games were really getting lousy. Anyway, this game sat in my fraternity room for another couple years, and was one of the few things that came home with me after graduation (this game and my new wife). It sat in the basement for a few years, then I actually sold it to my next door neighbor’s son when he was in Jr. High. I needed to get it out of my house so I could work on my basement. Anyway, he grew up and I had children since then, so I decided to get it back into the collection.
This game is really light compared to most full size uprights. Before I started collecting I thought it was heavy. It’s nothing compared to an Atari cabinet. Moved it very easily down into the basement gameroom.
Here are some more pictures of the game itself. I love how there is a mirror above the monitor to make the graphics flash even more!
Recent repairs:
Nothing for years. Installed a monitor bezel I picked up for it about five years ago. Also just added a cap kit. Really made the picture look much better. Also media blasted and repainted the control panel, but I don’t have a picture of that on here.
Final thoughts:
Fun and challenging game. Thought I was going to keep it for a long time, but it just was never a big hit for the kids. Had a chance to trade it for a Space Invaders Deluxe, and jumped for it. Love SI, so I couldn’t say "No."
Personal High Scores:
Nothing really notable. This game really wears you out after a couple hundred thousand points…
Links:
Screen Shots:
The top picture is from the actual game, with color overlays built into the bezel. The other screen shots are from the MAME emulator, which incorrectly shows the game as a color game. Maybe this is what it looks like with a color monitor installed. I don’t know. But, it is a black and white game with a translucent color overlay on the monitor bezel to give it "color".
