(played as part of ATARI 50)
I feel like vector graphics were essentially cheating, for arcade games. A shortcut straight to the cold, mysterious, cool, vaguely eerie and unnerving vibe that can create such a memorable arcade experience. This particular game was apparently born from the designer's nightmares of creatures crawling up after him out of a hole in the ground, and uh, yeah that's a pretty fuckin' evocative starting point! Put that together with the vector sheen and some extremely solid and well thought-through shooter gameplay and you've got a winner, and one that has appropriately outlived most of its contemporaries.
Some SPACE INVADER-likes from this era overdo it with way too many enemy types or effects or whatever, and on paper this seems to do that, but all of the visuals and enemy behaviors have been carefully designed to be visually distinct and legible, even (crucially) when they're far down the tube away from you. Halfway through a single run, you'll have a handle on things, and be able to play reactively. You'll need to overcome a bit of a learning curve with the rotary nature of the controls, and some continuing frustration of not -quite- being able to always land on the segment you want, but this is one of the good types of arcade games where you feel like you're always improving the more you play.
Most of all I love the look. The dizzying little zooms between levels, ever downward. The simple but strangely unforgettable level shapes. The uncanny way the player ship(?) wiggles and jiggles around the outside of the tube, itself seeming like some kind unknowable creature. The hellish cabinet art!
I can't remember seeing it mentioned in any interviews off the top of my head, but I feel like this must have been an influential one on some later game designers.
I feel like vector graphics were essentially cheating, for arcade games. A shortcut straight to the cold, mysterious, cool, vaguely eerie and unnerving vibe that can create such a memorable arcade experience. This particular game was apparently born from the designer's nightmares of creatures crawling up after him out of a hole in the ground, and uh, yeah that's a pretty fuckin' evocative starting point! Put that together with the vector sheen and some extremely solid and well thought-through shooter gameplay and you've got a winner, and one that has appropriately outlived most of its contemporaries.
Some SPACE INVADER-likes from this era overdo it with way too many enemy types or effects or whatever, and on paper this seems to do that, but all of the visuals and enemy behaviors have been carefully designed to be visually distinct and legible, even (crucially) when they're far down the tube away from you. Halfway through a single run, you'll have a handle on things, and be able to play reactively. You'll need to overcome a bit of a learning curve with the rotary nature of the controls, and some continuing frustration of not -quite- being able to always land on the segment you want, but this is one of the good types of arcade games where you feel like you're always improving the more you play.
Most of all I love the look. The dizzying little zooms between levels, ever downward. The simple but strangely unforgettable level shapes. The uncanny way the player ship(?) wiggles and jiggles around the outside of the tube, itself seeming like some kind unknowable creature. The hellish cabinet art!
I can't remember seeing it mentioned in any interviews off the top of my head, but I feel like this must have been an influential one on some later game designers.