The History of Zaxxon - arcade console documentary

in the early days of arcade development storylines for video games we're paper-thin take for example space invaders aliens attack you take out your weapon and kill the aliens Ritson repeat now even though there wasn't much to the plot the public went absolutely bonkers for the arcade game rumor has it that this game was so popular in Japan there was even a shortage of the yen coin this was actually the first shoot-'em-up release that was also a worldwide phenomenon the arcade game scramble came along in 1981 that took their viewpoint from space invaders and flipped it on its side this was also the first side-scrolling shoot-'em-up with multiple levels another innovation was your fuel level which you had to maintain by shooting fuel tanks on the play field the next logical step in terms of viewpoint would have to be the third dimension and Sega was up to the task with the innovative isometric games axon where does the names Exxon come from what other innovative concept did this game introduce let's find out as we learn about the history of zaxxon the year is 1982 and Sega is looking to capitalize on the space invaders phenomenon after releasing a string of coin apps that were only mildly successful they had their first monster hit with 1980 ones Frogger when developing their newest arcade game the bosses at Sega had one request take a look at the arcade game scramble and put their own unique spin on it in the early 1980s the company of Ikegami sushi key who were best known for manufacturing professional television equipment started subcontracting themselves to other Japanese companies rumor has it they had developed a number of games from Congo Bongo Popie and even Donkey Kong the only evidence of their involvement has to do with the company's logo being buried deep within the copyright graphics of the arcade code they would later enter into a lawsuit with Nintendo regarding copyright infringement over the source code for Donkey Kong the lawsuit was settled out of court the company had a few ideas but one they kept coming back to you was eggs on Oh metric projection which used an isometric viewpoint that simulates a 3d effect something that was unseen at the time at any sort of arcade game they decided to use a variation of the word exotic metric for the title of the arcade game which turned into zaxxon zaxxon was released in 1982 by sega you take on the role of a lone Star fighter who was equipped with a rapid-fire laser and you cross fortified bases of asteroid city the goal of your mission is to take down the zach side the controls are pretty straightforward using the flight sick you move your fighter around the play field bobbing and weaving like a prizefighter while you avoid all of the enemy fire you have a lone fire button but it does fire at a rapid pace you'll need it because it's a one-hit-wonder type of game not only can you move your fighter left and right but you move him up and down on the play field as well there is a helpful shadow underneath your plane and also on altimeter on your left you have to keep a careful eye on both of these as well as the various obstacles on the play field including force fields brick walls that you have to narrow lead rivers through enemy planes and also the fuel tanks stolen directly from the arcade game scramble you have to shoot the fuel tanks to replenish your fuel supply it should be noted that the further into the game you get the faster your fuel will deplete so it's best to get into the habit of shooting as many tanks as possible as the game starts you'll be flying over asteroid city if you make it through this section you're back in outer space for you must shoot a specific number of planes and finally it's back to asteroid city where at this time at the end of the level you have to fight the big boss decks on Zechs odd is equipped with an SBD a silent but deadly homing missile it is possible to shoot the missile in midair but it's also much easier to take it out before it's launched you need to shoot it a total of six times to destroy it after this the difficulty increases and the game repeats this was the first arcade game to receive a TV commercial Sega spent approximately one hundred and fifty thousand dollars on the advert which was also produced by Paramount in the two-dimensional world of video dots and dashes flat blips and formless blobs one video arcade game saws above the rest saksaum experience the controls you climb and dive feel the power as you attack and evade discover a new level of excitement with the to feel of action in three dimensions zaxxon from the master design engineers of sega [Music] the game was a smash hit and it was ported to just about every council and computer on the market the first version we're looking at is the Atari 2600 yes believe it or not this is actually supposed to be zaxxon and not some other generic shooting game due to the hardware limitations the isometric viewpoint had to be scrapped and what we are left with is just a standard shoot-'em-up which to be honest I'm not very good the sound effects are decent and the speed of the game is fairly quick but it's just not zaxxon next up is the Intellivision version which looks like a slightly beefier atari 2600 version the behind the play viewpoint which worked so well in the Atari version makes its return but honestly I wish it wouldn't have the game looks more like river rage rather than Zacks on it is speedy enough and the controls work fairly well but again it's just not Zack size the first thing you notice when you start up the spectrum version of zaxxon is the horrible clicking sounds you have two choices either not fire your weapon at all or just get used to it now let's talk about those wonderful graphics after playing this game for about 5 minutes I felt like I had about three seizures the sound the flickering the color clash the slow gameplay if you're a fan of punishment this is the game for you thanks to some legal shenanigans by a crafty lawyer we received two versions for the commodore 64 one on diskette and the other on cartridge the first version we are looking at is the diskette version by synapse software the graphics are nice and detailed with a fair use of color alter out the sound effects are good for an early Commodore 64 game playability feels pretty good but the speed is just a bit too slow the other version was developed by Sega themselves and released on cartridge format in my opinion the diskette version comes out on top thanks to the better you of color the sound effects and music are good as is the playability the Atari 5200 version is a pretty good attempt but something seems a bit off about it the graphics are nice and detailed but the backgrounds are a bit empty the game also seems to scroll way too fast it is not quite as smooth as the Commodore 64 version it does feel like the arcade game so that's always a plus by the way the game was also released for the Atari 400 and 800 computers but are virtually identical to the 5200 version the ColecoVision version is probably the best of the home console ports the sprites are large and detailed with plenty of colors on display as soon as it starts to move you'll see it's one fatal flaw and that's how jerky the scrolling is the game is still enjoyable but if they would have just fixed this one thing it could have been the definitive home conversion of zaxxon the sound effects are adequate and the playability is very good even with the stutter scroll the sg-1000 version looks very good in still pictures with nice detailed sprites and backgrounds once it starts to move everything goes to pieces the scrolling is speed are so slow you have time to take a bathroom break in between frames I can't believe they would publish this product with how it turned out how about the sound absolutely horrendous after a few minutes you'll be wishing for the onset of total deafness it plays decent but with everything else backer din I would avoid this at all cost now if the sg-1000 version was just a little too fast for you then you might want to stick with the MSX version for some strange reason they produce two versions of this game for the MSF computer and both that were essentially terrible don't ask me how but this version is even worse than the previous one slow speed horrible sounds and terrible playability what else could you ask for up next is the trs-80 model one version what in the world am I looking at to get the best vantage point for this game here's what you need to do stand up from your monitor and take approximately 120 paces in the opposite direction at that point turn around squint your eyes and it just might resemble zaxxon all jokes aside this computer was designed only for text with no graphic support the sound of the trs-80 makes the IBM PC speaker sound like Beethoven well that in mind this is a pretty good version of zaxxon the speed of the game is very close to the arcade game and the playability is good they also release decks on for the cocoa or trs-80 color computer now this is much better with nice detailed backgrounds and sprites the play field looks a little narrow to me but other than that everything is very true to the arcade game the sound effects are good with a nice use of explosions all throughout playability is good in reminiscent of the arcade game the Kaliko atom personal computer received an upgraded version of zaxxon called zaxxon the super game this utilized the expanded memory of the computer and put all the extra content that was not found in the ColecoVision version back in the gameplay is identical to the ColecoVision version in 1983 sega released super zaxxon into the arcades this played more like an updated version of the original zaxxon only was slightly better graphics the speed of the gameplay is a lot faster than the original and who is the final boss you have to fight in the game none other than a dragon don't ask me folks I've got no idea where the dragon came from it's a nice little update but it's still essentially zaxxon due to the massive popularity of the original arcade game a few pieces of merchandise were produced there was a board game a handheld LCD game and finally a really cool tabletop game this uses a double panel vacuum fluorescent display not only did the housing resemble the arcade game you even got to control your fighter with a miniature flight stick as with most tabletop conversions back in the day the playability is not very good out of all the tabletops though this one is pretty faithful to the arcade original but that's not saying much the Sega Master System received zaxxon 3d this uses Sega's 3d glasses which unfortunately I never got a chance to experience myself the game uses a behind the fighter view which one in the tunnel really makes a 3d effect shine similar in gameplay to the atari 2600 version this feels like a generic fighter and not like the arcade game zaxxon it does play very well with nice tight responsive controls in 1995 Sega released zaxxon motherbase 2004 the ill-fated 32x add-on this uses the same isometric viewpoint from the arcade game but instead of pixels that uses plat cheated polygons similar to Star Fox the gameplay is very similar to the original arcade game although you no longer can move up and down they replace this with a rather wacky jump button which honestly doesn't seem to work at all 2006 brought us the Sega Genesis collection for the PlayStation 2 and PSP an arcade perfect version of zaxxon was an unlockable in this collection the sonic ultimate genesis collection was released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 this one also will include Adad unlockable version of zaxxon the game was also released for the Wii Virtual Console and 2012 zaxxon escape was released for the Android platform when this game first starts up you'll be amazed at how nice the graphics are didn't you realize this is just another endless runner and has very little to do with the original arcade game excellent graphics and great music and sound effects but the gameplay is just totally and that pretty much wraps it up for the history of zaxxon the game was definitely innovative for its time with his isometric viewpoint and excellent graphics if you ever see this in the wild be sure and give it a go you can play it on MAME but there's nothing like feeling that fly stick in your hand while you defend asteroid City if you like my videos and want to support me on patreon please click the link below also be sure to like share and subscribe to my content it's the only way my little channel can grow thank you so much for watching you

Channel: PatmanQC - History of arcade game documentaries

Views: 170,566

Keywords: NES, arcade, SNES, amputee, Xbox, PlayStation, Sony, Nintendo, Sega, Microsoft, retro, video, gamesAtari, Colecovision, Intellivision, Jaguar, entertainment, system, Game, Boy, Genesis, Mega, drive, CD, X68000, Amstrad, spectrum, MSX, 2600, 5200, 7800, 400, 800, 1200, PS1, PS2, PS3, PS4, 360, one, switch, GameCube, wii, wii-u, Atari, gremlin, scramble, Popeye, donkey Kong, Coleco, shooter, shoot em up, TRS 80, Tandy, Color computer

Id: LKalWCWjyRM

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 22 2020