Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

released on Dec 31, 1982

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

released on Dec 31, 1982

Sega released the arcade video game Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom in 1982. It was a forward-scrolling rail shooter where the user controls a spaceship in a behind-the-back third-person perspective that must destroy enemy ships and avoid obstacles; the game was notable for its fast pseudo-3D scaling and detailed sprites. The game would later go on to influence the 1985 Sega hit Space Harrier, which in turn influenced the 1993 Nintendo hit Star Fox. Buck is never seen in the game, except assumedly in the illustration on the side of the arcade cabinet, and its only real connections to Buck Rogers are the use of the name and the outer space setting. Home versions were released for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari XE, ColecoVision, Coleco Adam, Intellivision, MSX and Sega SG-1000 video game systems, and the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Apple II and ZX Spectrum computers. A version for IBM PC using CGA graphics was also available.


Also in series

Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed
Buck Rogers: Matrix Cubed
Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday
Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday

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Reviews View More

1982??? Space Harrier, more like Space Almost Thereier.

The only interesting thing here is the graphics. However, some of the sprites, especially the stationary obstacles, look very distorted by the time they're in the foreground and appear to float more than being a fixed part of the landscape. Other times it becomes difficult to gauge how big an enemy ship will get by the time it's coming up on you. That said, the combat is fast paced and cycles through levels at a frenetic pace, but it's still a single button shooter at the end of the day.