GORF (CBS)

Entry posted by DoctorSpuds · November 13, 2018

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There were a lot of “Me To!” games back in the day, whether it be from Pac-Man or Space Invaders there were a lot. Very few “Me To!” games actually expanded on the initial idea of the game they’re taking inspiration from, that’s where GORF comes in. GORF was basically a five-in-one arcade machine where you face off against marauding space aliens who have different behaviors and configurations in every game. The first game is basically a direct rip of Space Invaders; the second was the laser barrage, where two groups of five enemies flit sporadically around the screen, the center enemy shoots long solid laser beams which will blow you up; the third game is basically a decent rip of Galaxian; the fourth game is the space warp, where are single enemy would spiral out from a black hole whist shooting at you, the dots in the center of the warp represent the amount of enemies you have left to destroy before moving on the next game ; the final game was a boss fight where you have to be a stellar marksman and shoot a tiny weak spot on the ship to get treated to a massive BOOM! All around the arcade is a wonderful experience, especially with that Speak ‘n Spell voice insulting and goading you much like in Berzerk. Sadly though we’re not looking at the Arcade version, we’re looking at the Atari 2600 version, which if you ask me is the WORST version available.

After looking through the Mobygames screenshot collection I can say that the Atari 2600 port of GORF is the most limited visually, and that’s even when stacked up against the VIC-20 version, ouch! The background in this space shooter is black, no starfield, no nothin’. All of the ships are a single color with the exception of your ship and the Gorfian flagship. As soon as you start the game you’ll notice something that’s missing… Where’s the shield? This version of GORF does not have the shield, one of the few things that really set it apart from the rest of the copycats was the shield, and they didn’t put it in this version, even the VIC-20 version had the shield! The second mission is the laser barrage mission and this one is also lacking something integral to the game, there is only one group of enemies where in every other version there are two. Mission three is also lacking something, though not integral this time, the growing lines that give the impression of being at warp are gone, all you are left with is a flickering circle of dots, again the VIC-20 had the lines. Mission four, the flagship, again the shield is missing, but that’s the only thing I can really complain about.

This game has many sounds; unfortunately they all sound pretty much the same, shooting sounds and explosion noises galore in GORF. I really don’t have anything to say about this so I’ll just go straight into the gameplay if you don’t mind.

Mission 1 – Astro Battles:

Its Space Invaders… you already know what that is.

Mission 2 – Laser Attack:

A group of five enemies move up and down the screen in a somewhat erratic pattern, even though they are stuck on the same tracks as the Space Invaders from the previous missions. The blue ship at the bottom of the formation shoots long solid laser beams at you whilst the others in the group will dive bomb you Galaxian style, when the laser enemy is destroyed the enemies left in the group will ‘Space Invaders’ at max speed towards your ship.

Mission 3 – Space Warp:

Enemies will fly in a spiral motion from the center of the screen while rapidly firing their Subquark Torpedoes, if you can find the sweet spot you’ll hit all five of them in rapid succession, if you are unable to find the sweet spot you’ll have great difficulty with this section. The circle of dots do not represent the amount of enemies left, they are simply a visual indicator of where the enemies are going to emerge from, even the VIC-20 had this feature.

Mission 4 – Flag Ship

The Gorfian Flag Ship is descending slowly from the top of the screen, all you have to do is hit that really obvious spot on its underside and you win the game. All the other versions of this game had each shot destroy a pixel of the ship and have that pixel fall as debris on your ship; the 2600 version does not have this. Also the enemy shield is missing from this mission as well, in all other versions you have to shoot through their shield to in order to get at the Flagship, this feature is sorely lacking from the 2600 port of the game.

This is a very weak port of the game, its missing features integral to making this game a unique experience, and is simply lacking any visual flair whatsoever. All of that said though, I would much prefer to play the 2600 port of GORF over the original Space Invaders arcade, or even on console. 2600 GORF still has variation and challenge to it, which makes it stand out amongst the rest of the space shooter games on the system. GORF isn’t too expensive, loose carts will set you back 7-10 dollars and boxed copies are 20+, personally I would recommend against buying a boxed copy, but if you find one in decent shape for 15$ or less then it might be worth it. I will spare this game the Collector’s Zone, but only barely, and yes the VIC-20 version is far better.