zaxxon sucks so bad...

[Keatah]

I played the coin-op Zaxxon when it was first released. I remember how much it impressed me with its pseudo 3D. Unfortunately my recollections are not nearly detailed enough to actually remember the feel of play, speed etc. as compared to ports for home systems. I just remember how cool it seemed!

 

Well just take a gander in mame and there you go! A side by side comparison against any home port.

[Level42]

Dropzone is a master piece, at least on PAL machines. I was lucky enough to actually meet Archer a number of years ago during an arcade event in the UK. When I thanked him for and Dropzone he smiled and said.....you know, you are one of the first people to mention Dropzone instead of International Karate ! He clearly liked it....Archer has SO many great stories about the industry....I hope he'll write a book someday....he also told me how much he preferred programming for the A8 over the C64.....

 

One thing about the original Defender coin-op that sticks out to me - is that it originally had separate buttons for the joystick movements - and I think that when a joystick was added to it, it lost a special feeling to that game. Of course, it was so much harder to use buttons than a joystick.

Uhhh, Defender arcade version uses a joystick for up and down, and buttons for thrust,reverse direction, fire , smart bomb and hyperspace. That control scheme was never changed AFAIK. Even the prototype/pilot run machine has the controls as they are on any other Defender machine:

 

 

I had never played Defender on an arcade machine until 1998 and I just kept wondering what they had smoked at Williams to come up with an insane control,set like this.....I just couldn't play it since I'm used to Dropzones much more logical controls....to be honest I never touch a Defender when I'm at arcade parties etc. the controls are just too insane for me.....but I love Dropzone.

 

Zaxxon I had only played on the A8 as well. Not one of my favorite games in general but the "3D" smooth scrolling impressed me as I had seen the Colecovision version before...I also thought the controls were pretty smooth. Yes it was fast but that even nor impressed me. I'm in PAL territory so it wasn't unplayable fast IMHO.

 

I think every serious A8 owner should try to get a system from "the other side". I have a NTSC 800XL since a couple of years and I'm can't go back to playing most of the older games in PAL now, I love the extra speed.

Edited September 21, 2016 by Level42

[Dmitry]

I would rate it as the top game of it's genre. If you're not into so-called spacey shooters (well, we use to use that term over in these parts) and have ultra fast reflexes - then it's not your cup of tea.

But you can also look at the programming side - in which everything is fast and smooth - and the game is responsive. Even in it's maniac phase - when you lose all your men, it is survivable - if you're good enough.

 

I haven't played this game in decades - and have yet to see something that comes close to this - but maybe I'm wrong about this?

 

Harvey

 

 

 

Oh I'll be honest I'd like it a lot better if I didn't suck at it. I really will have to give it another try at a slower speed.

 

I don't play games a lot, so I certainly don't have any particularly quick reaction time. It reminds me of a few years ago, someone said I need to try some game, it was some kind of online arena 3d first person shootemup. And I'd 'spawn' I guess and then immediately die.

 

Spawn, then die, spawn then die.

 

Logically I knew there was some way to play the game, but on another level, I'm like what is the thrill in this repetitive death simulation.

[fujidude]

 

Well just take a gander in mame and there you go! A side by side comparison against any home port.

True... true.

[kiwilove]

I can't say it was my memory being so bad, I did not remember any kind of up/down controller?

I don't know if it was an authentic Williams machine too?

It certainly wasn't the configuration in the photo - the panel was not as wide. So it may have been a counterfeit machine? Williams was not so present with it's games down in this part of the world - and I can't recall other Williams videogames appearing locally? Regarding counterfeits - I saw a Zaxxon game - with it displaying Jackson.

 

It's OK not to be into shooters - whose reflexes are not up to it. They are certainly adrenalin games - you feel in a worked up state after playing.

 

Harvey

[Mclaneinc]

I seem to remember there were official cabinets and some not so official ones so varitaions were about in control setup, I know this from far too much time spent in The Crystal rooms in Leicester Square in central London. Around there was the coin op capital and as a lad / young man I loved Asteroids and Galaxian, there was a certain need to leave your name on the top of the high score table

 

Some of the smaller arcades had weird versions of the games in odd cabinets so I presume people were stripping the boards out and reworking them in snide cabs.

[Mclaneinc]

 

I think every serious A8 owner should try to get a system from "the other side". I have a NTSC 800XL since a couple of years and I'm can't go back to playing most of the older games in PAL now, I love the extra speed.

 

I from being UK based got used to the PAL speed so some games became a bit too fast for my liking but when I got a snes I modded it to play all region games and got used to the NTSC speed and then only liked playing stuff at 60fps which if you had the pleasure / hardship of playing Super Ghouls and Ghosts and hit the horrible slowdown on certain levels at least the extra fps made it a little less annoying.

 

And you just HAVE to play Axelay at 60fps on the Snes via hardware or emulator, its a shooters dream....

Edited September 22, 2016 by Mclaneinc

[Heaven/TQA]

oh... Axelay in 60 fps is different to PAL one? don't tell me that Konami did not made any adjustments.... I love that game (as most early Konami games in launch of SNES in Germany Castlevania 4, Super Probotector, Parodius, Axelay)

[kiwilove]

I thought shooters (and other arcade like games) were somewhat disappointing on the Atari STs and Amiga- though there were a few good ones for sure - I tended to like ones not so critically acclaimed but stood out nonetheless.

It was when I played SNES games - that I felt that games were so much more playable - while having smooth scrolling, lots of multi-coloured sprites, etc.

Super Mario World stood out head and shoulders above any other platform for comparison - and maybe still does?

Contra 3 took you onto more and more insane action levels as you moved through the game.

Super Aleste showed just how much action can be on screen for a shooter.

Legend of Zelda stood out for all the stuff you had to do in this very involved game and the very clever use of a dual world concept. Was this one of the longest games with it's many quests?

Super Metroid was another game in similar scope to Zelda.

And that the SNES hardware had that edge over the Genesis/MegaDrive hardware. I did manage to play most games on both systems.

Edited September 22, 2016 by kiwilove