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| Battlezone | |
| Developer: | Atari |
| Publisher: | Atari |
| Game designer: | Ed Rotberg |
| Release date: | 1980 |
| Genre: | Retro/ Simulation |
| Game modes: | Single player |
| Cabinet: | Standard |
| Controls: | Two 2-way joysticks (up and down), 1 button |
| Monitor | |
| Orientation: | Horizontal |
| Type: | Vector (b&w) with color overlay |
| Size: | 19 inch |
| Notes | |
| First arcade game with real 3D environment; A Battlezone version was used for military training; Developed during the Golden Age of Arcade Games; One of the Top 100 games in the KLOV | |
Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white CRT (with green color overlay). Due to its novel gameplay and look, this game was very popular for many years.
The vector technique is similar to the visuals of games such as Asteroids. The game was designed by Ed Rotberg , who also designed the somewhat similar Red Baron . A version called Army Battlezone was also designed for use by the US army, for tank gunnery training, but only two of them were produced (although the gunner yoke developed was later re-used in the Star Wars game).
The game was set on a plain with flat-line horizon, distant crescent moon, and various geometric solids (in vector outline) like pyramids and blocks. The player viewed the screen, which included an overhead radar view to find and destroy the rather slow tanks, faster moving supertanks, or saucer-shaped UFOUFO can mean: Unidentified Flying Object United Future Organization, a Japanese- Brazilian electronic jazz band UFO, the rock band that previously featured Michael Schenker UFO, the Gerry Anderson TV series United Farmers of Ontario, a political party thas, all with ascending point values. The player could hide behind the solids or maneuver in rapid turns once fired on to buy time with which to fire himself. Three hits by an enemy tank ended the game. Common play in the US could run from 25 cents to a dollar per game, depending on machine setting.
The game cabinet was a standard vertical shape with a novel " periscopeA periscope is an instrument for observation from a concealed position. In its simplest form it is a tube in each end of which are mirrors set parallel to each other and at an angle of 45° with respect to the line between them. It may be used as a toy or" viewfinder which the player used to view the game. The game action could also be viewed from the sides of the viewfinder for spectators to watch.
The controls consisted of two joystickA joystick is a computer peripheral or general control device consisting of a hand held stick that pivots about one end and transmits its angle in two or three dimensions to a computer. Most joysticks are two-dimensional, having two axes of movement, justs, each with forward or reverse to move and turn. One joystick contained a button used to fire projectiles at enemy targets.