Astro Blaster
Astro Blaster is a shoot 'em up arcade game released by Sega in 1981. The player controls a ship (bearing a resemblance to the Battlestar Galactica) which can fire and move left or right. The player must continuously monitor the onscreen temperature and fuel gauges; if the ship overheats, its weapon is disabled, and if it is depleted of fuel, the vessel itself explodes. The player must battle through waves of enemies, which attack with varied formations and flight patterns. When a wave is destroyed, a new one appears. At the end of each sector, the player flies through an asteroid belt and can obtain extra fuel by shooting fireballs. After this, the mother ship is met, where the player docks and refuels for the next sector. Also, the player is rewarded various bonuses for accomplishing certain feats, such as, shooting all enemies in a specific order or shooting all enemies without missing. Astro Blaster features "speech synthesis" technology. This was a novel feature at the time that was shared with Midway's contemporary arcade title Gorf, and had been pioneered a year earlier by Stern's, with "Berzerk". During attract mode (specifically while showing the high score list) the game's voice synthesizer generates the speech "Fighter pilots needed in sector wars...play Astro Blaster!" 1 Player Start 1 2 Player Start 2 Coin 1 5 Coin 2 6 Service 1 9 Service Mode F2 P1 Left LEFT P1 Right RIGHT P1 Button 1 LCONTROL or Mouse B1 P1 Button 2 LALT or Mouse B3 P2 Left D P2 Right G P2 Button 1 A P2 Button 2 S Released 1981 Platform Arcade Developed by Sega/Gremlin Published by Sega/Gremlin Interface Direct control Setting Sci-fi / futuristic Visual Fixed / flip-screen Gameplay Arcade, Shooter Perspective Side view Genre Action Description Astro Blaster is an one or two player arcade game where you have to blast various waves of different alien ships who appear above your ship. On each screen a wave of aliens will appear and you have to destroy them all to move onto the next screen and a different wave. Each wave moves in different formations and fires lasers at you but you also have a laser and can fire back as you move your ship left and right at the bottom of the screen. The ability to warp is also included which slows down the enemy for a short space of time. You need to keep an eye out on your laser temperature gauge, fire too much and it overheats disabling the ability to fire for a short time. Another gauge to be aware of is your fuel gauge which slowly decreases. To fill it you have to dock with your mother ship. This appears after every four waves so the quicker you destroy the waves the quicker you can dock. You have to line up your ship as it approaches. It is game over if you lose your three lives or run out of fuel. From Mobygames.com. Original Entry
