Arcade Fixed-Screen Shoot 'em up Review: Space Invaders (Color Version)

The color version of Space Invaders was released in 1979, the year after the release of the game. In the early days of the video game industry, sequels weren't well defined. That's how you ended up with tons of variations of Pong, or games that had the hook of added color. You also sometimes received updates like the color version of Space Invaders, where the game was different under the hood but the cabinet artwork was unchanged.

The original Space Invaders was a completely black and white affair, although some arcades would add a filter over the monitor that would add green and red sections to simulate color. The color version, on the other hand, added a near rainbow of colors. There are now five colors, alongside white. The colors are the green and red of the filter, plus yellow, cyan, and magenta.

It matches the colors of the marquee, as a matter of fact, giving the game a unified feel that upped the whole presentation. In an era where black and white graphics were the norm, a monitor full of color would definitely be a big draw. Since the gameplay remained as addicting as always, it was a good way to get people to the cabinet in an era where keeping up player interest was key.

The primary addition to the game code outside of the addition of color was another that would bring people to the cabinet. Arcade games were all about playing to get the high score, and this update allowed for even higher scores than before. Whereas the original had a limit of four digits, the color update raised the maximum amounts of digits in the score to five.

People who are familiar with the original Space Invaders will also notice that the bases now have numbers on them. This has no real meaning to the game outside of cosmetics, but it will provide the base of the true sequel to Space Invaders, Space Invaders Part II aka Deluxe Space Invaders or Space Invaders Deluxe, which was also released in 1979.

The color version of Space Invaders was a mere stop gap between the first game and its sequel, but it is an interesting footnote in the history of the video game industry. It retains all of the same addicting gameplay of the original and makes it a bit more pleasing with a splash of color. In that sense, it is really just as worthy of a game as its two or four-toned predecessor.

Final verdict:

4 out of 5

Arcade Brick-Breaking Game Review: Arkanoid

Arkanoid was an arcade game by Taito that took the Breakout concept and brought it to new heights. This game was so influential to the block breaking genre that games of this type will often be called Breakout/Arkanoid clones. Not many genres get two progenitors, outside of Metroidvania games.

The game has the usual paddle at the bottom of the screen that bounces a ball toward the blocks above. However, while earlier games of the block breaking genre merely switched things up by having blocks arranged in different shapes or by having blocks that needed to be hit more than once, Taito went further. Arkanoid still had everything in the preceding sentence. However, they added in powerups that could be released by breaking certain blocks, setting the standard for ball breaking games going forward.

The powerups include increasing the size of the paddle that represents a spaceship, giving your ship the ability to fire lasers to break bricks easier, and even one that opens up a warp to the next level. There are power-downs too, so it's necessary to pay attention to the color and markings when they drop down. In some levels, there are also enemies which bounce on top of the uppermost level of blocks. If you break the block underneath, they will drop down toward your ship if you had not already destroyed them with the ball bouncing you bounced off your ship. You can kill them by catching the ball at the right angle. The laser powerup really helps in these situations. There is also a sticky powerup that will cause the ball to stick, allowing you time to release it, which also helps get rid of baddies.

The sound effects and opening theme are actually really well done. The jingle that starts at the beginning of each stage attempt is just a few notes, but they are catchy enough that they stick in your head long after the game is over. The sound design that is amazing is the ball sound effects. A lot of times in games like these, the beep that comes every time the ball bounces from your paddle or on a block begins to get grating because you hear it constantly. Taito has given this sound a gentle little sound that is more of a chime than a beep, which makes it actually pleasant to hear over and over. There are also unique sounds for when the ship changes after a powerup is caught, when the lasers are shot after that particular powerup is gained, and when an enemy is eliminated. Because none of the notes in the music or sound effects are sharp or grating, this is arcade sound design at its finest.

The powerups in Arkanoid really transformed the genre into one that no longer felt like it was stuck in the past. The powerups and power-downs were genius. It makes the game so much more welcoming. The gentle music snippets and sound effects also help to keep it from grating on the ears after a while playing. Arkanoid is not just a true arcade classic, it is also an example of a game that transformed its genre so much that it is now considered the template rather than the game that begot the genre in the first place. Breakout style-games had not had the gameplay additions of Arkanoid before it came out, but they all have them following its release.

Final Verdict:
5 out of 5

Arcade Action Game Review: Adventure Canoe

Adventure Canoe is a game included in Taito's recent EGRET II Mini tiny arcade console that was a big surprise when the game list was announced. It's such an unknown game that Taito only lists it as having been released "overseas". The only mention of it on the internet was a post asking if anyone else had seen the game and mentioning that the game was available in New Zealand. Because of this, few, if any, people could be expected to have thought this game would be included in Taito's mini console. Yet, here we are.

The game, as the title suggests, has you control a canoe with the joystick. You have a speed up button, and one for shooting a gun from the front. It's actually quite fun, but there's a ton of obstacles, so it can get difficult. Maneuvering around the little islands, incoming logs, and moving river locks is difficult as it is. However, you'll have to be careful of the enemies throwing arrows from the river banks. It's really easy to get stuck in the path of the arrow if you're not careful. 

On the sound side, there's a simple looping background song, and bloops for sound effects such as hitting an obstacle, rowing, shooting, and for logs coming toward you, among other things. It's simple, but for a game released in 1982, they do their job well enough.

As far as shooting goes, you can shoot the logs to get them out of the way, and you can also shoot the animals. The latter is hard for me to do, personally. The graphics are bright and colorful. The animals that appear sometimes on the riverbanks are the most detailed part of the art. They look so cute, I just can't bring myself to shoot at them. There's a lion or a fox just chilling in the grass by the river. The little fox is bopping to the sound of her own rhythm and the lion may roar at you. But, they can't reach you, so I can't bring myself to do it, even if it is just a game. I'm crazy like that sometimes. If you can do it, which I'm sure you can, you'll get bonus points for doing so.

Adventure Canoe is a game that has an easy to understand premise. It's not one of the games from the era that aged particularly well, but it is a fun little bop in small doses. The real draw of this is that it is one of the lesser known game in Taito's arcade library. Before the release of the Egret II Mini, the only mention of the game is from a classic gaming forum where a user from New Zealand asked if anyone else has ever heard of the game. For preservation sake, it is always great to see relatively unknown games get a re-release. It's especially great in this case, as arcade developers don't have a good track record of keeping ROM files of their own games, usually falling to archivists like the contributors to the multiple game emulator MAME to extract them from physical boards found out in the wild. It's great to see this game finally get an official home release for Taito enthusiasts.

Final Verdict:

3 out of 5

Arcade Action Game Review: Elevator Action

Elevator Action is a classic arcade game that the Japanese developer Taito released into arcades worldwide in the 1980s.

The game follows a spy who slides into different apartment buildings, traveling up and down elevators as well as escalators in order to enter specially marked doors to collect the secrets contained within. There are enemy agents within the building. The spy has to avoid the enemies while shooting them before being shot. Light fixtures can also be shot to drop on the head of enemy agents. 

Once all the secrets have been collected, the spy heads to the underground garage to take an escape car. Then, the spy slides into another apartment building and the collecting begins again.

The music works well, and although simple, is very memorable. The graphics are also simple, due to the game's age, but they depict the apartment and spies well. The death animation and music are as memorable as that in Pac-Man even though the game isn't as well remembered.

Elevator Action is a simple, but fun arcade game from the 1980s. It is a true classic that has graphics, music, and gameplay that stand the test of time despite its age. It deserves to be played by every gamer at least once.

Final Verdict:
4½ out of 5

Arcade Fixed-Screen Shoot 'em up Review: Space Invaders

In 1978, Taito released Space Invaders, the hit video game that established the shoot 'em up genre as a heavy hitter within the video game industry.

I first played Space Invaders in 2000 while working on my arcade emulator, LASER. Unlike Lupin III, I had actually heard of this game before because it was a big-name game. It was and still is being ported to, and getting remakes and clones for, just about every platform imaginable.

Like all games on Taito 8080 hardware, it is a relatively simple game. It is a black and white game, although some arcades placed a color plastic overlay over the monitor to give the allusion that there are red and green colors on certain parts of the screen. There are score and life counters, invading aliens, a ship, and bunkers that can be shot through by the player and enemies alike.

The object is simply to pilot a ship at the bottom of the screen, which can only move left and right, and to shoot the invading forces before they shoot you. When all the aliens are shot, the screen refreshes and another fleet of aliens need to be dealt with. With each new fleet, the game gets progressively faster. To paraphrase a quote from Lrrr in the animated television series Futurama, instead of shooting where the ships are you should shoot where they are going to be.

There is also very little sound. There is the whirring sound when a bonus ship floats by the top of the screen that can award extra points, the zap sound that occurs when you shoot, and a simple four-note progression that acts as the music. These simple sounds work very well, however, and even the four simple notes that are played throughout gameplay surprisingly work well and don't become annoying with extended play.

The whole game is incredibly simple, but it is far from being tedious. Like Pac-Man, it is one of the early arcade games that truly stands the test of time. I was not born when the game came out and I didn't get a chance to play this game until decades after its release. However, even decades after my first time playing, I will still play it whenever I get the chance. Anyone interested in video games should try it at least once. It is a true classic.

Final verdict:

4 out of 5

Arcade Maze Game Review: Lupin III

In 1980, Taito released Lupin III, the first video game based on the popular Lupin the Third manga and anime. It was developed on the same Intel 8080 hardware platform that powered Taito's classic Space Invaders. That game stood the test of time, but does Lupin III fare nearly as well?

I first came across Lupin III in 2001 while working on my arcade emulator, LASER. As it is a deceptively simple game, like all games on Taito 8080 hardware, I did not expect much of it. However, as I worked to get the graphics and controls working properly in my emulator, I began to see that it actually is very enjoyable.

It is one of the first maze games, as it was released three months before Pac-Man, the seminal game in that genre. The purpose of the game is to clear out all of the money bags from the bank while avoiding the police. Like most early maze games, once the screen is cleared, it keeps repeating at a faster rate until all player lives are lost. Like Pac-Man, despite sounding boring, it is a lot of fun in practice. This is especially true in the international version.

The original Japanese release was a simple affair as all characters were colored yellow and the game contained no sound. The international version had multiple colors for the various characters, stage music, a stage clear jingle, and messages when stages are cleared. It also replicated the intro in an expectedly simple, yet amazingly effective, style. This makes the international version quite fun to play, and, like Pac-Man, it is infinitely replayable.

The international version of Lupin III is available in the Taito EGRET II Mini console, making it available to the home market for the first time. Although it has simple gameplay mechanics and simple, yet effective, animations and sound, the international version is extremely replayable. It is one of my favorite games on Taito 8080 arcade hardware and it is well worth playing if you ever manage to come across it.

Final verdict:

3½ out of 5