Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
11
Dish:
Lazer Blast Survival
In the late 1970s came a turn-based game called
Robots
from Berkeley Software Distribution
(BSD). In
Robots
, the player must escape from a swarm of enemies that move in closer toward
the player at each turn. In the original version of the game, the player moves around the arena
in an attempt to avoid contact between enemies and player, which would end the game.
Robots
is often referred to as the beginning of the arena shooter—a term used to describe
a top-down shoot 'em up game with the action locked into a limited area similar to an arena.
There were derivatives of the
Robots
concept, but the overall idea of escaping from hoards of
enemies in an enclosed area remained the same and the game was perfect for the low-spec
computers of the time. Before long, it was inevitable that it would evolve into something
faster—and in real time. In 1980, Stern Electronics introduced the world to
Berserk
.
Berserk
started out as an arcade game but quickly moved to home consoles such as
the Atari 2600, 5200, and Vectrex systems. It was, in essence, the evolution of
Robots
into
a real-time arcade shooter. In this version, the player makes his way through a randomly
generated maze, zapping enemies. Each screen contained a number of enemies, which
could be either destroyed or left behind as the player made his way to the edge of the screen
to move on to the next part of the maze. There was no scrolling; movement between each
section was by a screen swap. One of
Berserk
's most outstanding and well-remembered
features was a speech synthesis system in the arcade machines that allowed the robots to
talk. Arcades everywhere rumbled to random robot phrases and kids like me put on their
best robot voices to say “Get the humanoid”, “The intruder must not escape”, and “Flight
like a robot!”.
