MAME ROW #81 - Space Panic

[GtBFilms]

Tried these out over the last couple of evenings.

The Main Event looks good, and the digitised voice is excellent. Once it comes to the actual gameplay though, there only appears to be two buttons - one to tag your partner, and the other for everything else. Reading online it appears that the original arcade machine had a large red illuminated button and the action it performs is dependent on what you are doing at the time. I managed to do some pretty good moves but ultimately got pinned down and wasn't entirely sure what I could have done to prevent it. The presentation on this game is much better than the actual gameplay. Not sure how it would work as a high score challenge either.

Space Panic is something of a classic. I'd heard of it and played versions on home computers but never tried the original. It's pretty basic but predates Donkey Kong, Burger Time and other similar ladders games. The gameplay still isn't bad, requiring some strategy to lure each alien to it's doom effectively, while avoiding all the aliens at the same time.

Hot Shocker might be a good game, but despite playing it 3 or 4 times I still didn't understand what was happening. I was thinking you had to join the two telephones via the web but that didn't appear to do anything. I kept getting killed by a candle. Even watching the YouTube playthrough and googleing for instructions, I was still none the wiser.

So this week, my vote goes to an early pioneer, some of the features of which went on to star (admittedly in a more refined form) in later classics. I voted for Space Panic!

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Panic

[mediamogul]

@gtbfilms said in MAME ROW #81:

It's pretty basic but predates Donkey Kong, Burger Time and other similar ladders games.

It also appears to predate 'Lode Runner' by three years. I would have said the similarities in game play might have been a coincidence, but apparently Brøderbund was already guilty of cloning the game in 1981 with 'Apple Panic'.

[AndersHP]

Space Panic for me, too!

[obsidianspider]

This week's winner is Space Panic

[mediamogul]

That artwork is fantastic! It's very similar to late '70s DC/Marvel. It's interesting that the game play itself doesn't line up with the concept they're attempting to sell through the marketing material. The flyer, description and even the name implies a space shooter of some kind, but the game itself is obviously a platformer. This could be because that genre had not yet been fully realized, while space shooters were well established and all the rage. It's almost as if the team responsible for marketing it to arcade owners were so unsure of the concept that they tried to shoehorn it into the 'Space Invaders' mold. Being a big 'Lode Runner' fan, I look forward to trying this out.

[AndersHP]

This game is not part of the MAME2003 "lite" DAT file, anyone knows why?

[mediamogul]

@andershp

The ROM doesn't appear to meet any of the criteria for exclusion. It's probably just an oversight.

[GtBFilms]

I got to 4640, but level 4 when the green alien that requires a two storey fall to kill it has me beaten (for now!)

[UDb23]

@mediamogul said in MAME ROW #81 - Space Panic:

that artwork is fantastic!

Fully agree. Made an overlay for it after restoring a quite bad (but high res) bezel scan found on arcadeartwork.org.

[mediamogul]

@udb23

Very nice!

[Clyde]

@udb23 Indeed, very nice. Could you make a 4:3 version by accident? :]

[UDb23]

@clyde not today... @airport waiting for my flight...
What screen res ?

[Clyde]

@udb23 Thanks for asking, 1600x1200 would be nice. :) Bon voyage!

[UDb23]

@clyde will have a chance to make it next WE.

[obsidianspider]

MAME ROW #82 is live!