Trying to locate an arcade video game from my youth.
It was a spaceship shooter game, the scrolling type where you’re flying “up” the screen, (there’s a background that is flowing from north to south, the spaceship appears to be flying north). Generally the ship stays near the bottom of the screen and is “flying” toward the top (north), but it can move all over. Generally (but not always) the baddies appear near the top and are “flying” toward the bottom of the screen (south).
Flying-wise it was like “1942”. It was *not *like “Space Invaders”, where you can only sit at the bottom and things come at you. It was *not *like “Defender”, where you fly sideways (for lack of a better way to describe it).
It had the standard joystick and four “fire” buttons.
Here are some unique, identifying (hopefully) features:
[ul]
[li]I recall playing it in roughly 1981 – 1983. It was not popular, there weren’t many to be found in local video game arcades (in Charlotte, NC). [/li]
[li]You could shoot in four directions – north, south, east, and west. That’s why there were four “fire” buttons.[/li]
[li]There was one stage where the background music was, I swear, the melody from “Attack of the Hawk Men” from the *Flash Gordon *soundtrack by Queen.[/li][/ul]
So there it is. If you were a youngster playing video games in the early 80’s and listened to the Flash Gordon soundtrack (likely on cassette tape) more than you’d care to admit… know what game this is?
Note to all… I posted this here and not The Game Room because of the *Flash Gordon *reference. The most memorable thing about the game was this music reference, if anyone can identify this game I suspect it will likely be because of that.
Xevious was a straight-ahead shooter. I also believe the OP is looking for Vanguard, which does have prominent up/down scrolling stages. (Less likely would be Vanguard II, which was quite rare).
It has to be Vanguard. I open every thread like this, hoping the answer will be that game, because it was my absolute favorite. I played the hell out it at the local skating rink, and have (or had) the unofficial high score- 448,000. I won a t-shirt and everything.
I used to play that in the pub from time to time - in fact, we used to go to this particular pub to play it! (the machine was the only reason to go there as it was a fairly rubbish bar)
I remember I used to get stuck at one particular point every time until one night after playing it I dreamt about playing it and realised how to beat it. Next time I was in, I remembered my dream and it worked!
Yes, upon review it certainly was both up/down scroll and right/left scroll. My memory faded. (Huh, my mother was right. My mind really was turned to mush from all those video games.) Now I’m going to have “Attack of the Hawk Men” as my mental song of the day.
