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Gorf

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the arcade game. For the comic book creator and cartoonist nicknamed "Gorf", see Jordan B. Gorfinkel.
Gorf
Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Dave Nutting Associates
Roklan Corporation
(Atari 8-bit/5200)
CBS Electronics (2600)
Nuvatec (ColecoVision)
Publisher(s)
  • Atari 8-bit
    • NA: Roklan
    2600
    • NA/EU: CBS Electronics
    VIC-20
    5200
    • NA: CBS Electronics
    BBC Micro
    • EU: Doctorsoft
    ColecoVision
    C64
    • NA: Commodore
Designer(s)Jamie Fenton
Platform(s)
Release
February 1981
Genre(s)Fixed shooter
Mode(s)

Gorf is an arcade video game released in 1981 by Dave Nutting Associates. It is a fixed shooter with five distinct levels, the first of which is based on Space Invaders and another on Galaxian. The game makes use of synthesized speech for the Gorfian robot which taunts the player, powered by a speech chip.Gorf allows the player to buy two additional lives per quarter before starting the game, for a maximum of seven lives.

The home ports omit the Galaxians stage because the Japanese developer Namco owns the rights to the franchise.

Gameplay

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Astro Battles, the game's first mission

Gorf is a fixed shooter in which the players take control of an unnamed starship from the Interstellar Space Force with a mission to prevent the Gorfian Empire from conquering Earth. The ship is capable of moving freely in all directions around the lower third of the screen under the control of a joystick. This was a departure from older vertically-oriented linear shooters, including Space Invaders and Galaxian, which allowed only horizontal movement of the player's ship controlled by left and right buttons. At the time, the joystick input and two-dimensional movement were still unusual enough that contemporary video game guides noted them as distinctive features of Gorf.[2][3]

Gameplay consists of five distinct missions; every mission presents its own unique playstyle, but the central goal of each is to destroy all enemies. Successfully completing all five missions loops the player back to the first mission and also increases the player's rank, which represents the current difficulty level of the game. Gameplay continues until the player loses all of their lives.

Before starting a new game, players can buy up to seven additional lives by purchasing more credits; an extra life is also granted after clearing the first five missions. Unlike similar games where the player can only shoot their weapon after an existing shot has disappeared from the screen, the ship is equipped with a laser cannon capable of firing a single vertical shot (called a "quark laser") at any time, although doing so causes the previous shot to disappear.

Players can advance through the ranks of Space Cadet, Space Captain, Space Colonel, Space General, Space Warrior and Space Avenger, which increases the speed and difficulty of the game and introduces more enemy patterns. Depending on the version, the player's current rank is displayed via a series of integrated lit panels on the cabinet.

Missions

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  1. Astro Battles: A clone of Space Invaders; it is the only mission that takes place on Earth instead of space. 24 enemies attack in the classic pattern set by the original game; however, the player is protected by a parabolic force field that switches off temporarily when the player's shots pass through it and is gradually worn away by enemy fire.
  2. Laser Attack: The first mission set in space, where the player must battle two formations of five enemies. Each formation contains three yellow enemies that attempt to dive-bomb the player, a white gunner that fires a single laser beam, and a red miniature version of the Gorf robot.
  3. Galaxians: As the name implies, this mission is a clone of Galaxian, with the key differences being the number of enemies and the way they fire at the player. Gameplay is otherwise similar to the original game.
  4. Space Warp: This mission places the player in a sort of wormhole, where enemies fly outward from the center of the screen and attempt to either shoot down or collide with the player's ship. It is possible to destroy enemy shots in this level.
  5. Flag Ship: The Flag Ship is protected by its own force field, similar to the one protecting the player in Mission 1, and it flies back and forth firing at the player. To defeat it, the player must break through the force field and destroy the ship's core. As with the alien ship in Phoenix, the bottom of the flag ship must be blasted away to expose the vulnerable core. If a different part of the ship is hit, the player receives bonus points, and the part breaks off and flies in a random direction, potentially posing a risk to the player's ship. When the player successfully hits the core, the Flag Ship explodes in a dramatic display, the player advances to the next rank, and play continues on Mission One, with the difficulty increased. Later encounters with the Flag Ship on higher ranks include additional enemies during the mission.

Development

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Background and pre-production

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Gorf was developed by Jamie Fenton of Dave Nutting Associates (DNA). DNA had become Research and development consultants for Midway Manufacturing at the beginning of the 1970s, and had developed several arcade games such as Gun Fight (1975), a reworking of Taito's game Western Gun.[4][5] Around this period, Nutting was working on a light gun-based game where the player would attempt to shoot a character he initially christened "Gorf". The game eventually developed into Desert Gun (1977).[4]

Fenton had worked with DNA initially to work on pinball machines. She was a co-creator on some early arcade games such as The Amazing Maze Game (1976) and 280 ZZZAP (1977) and led the team who created the early video game console, the Bally Astrocade. Some of the custom integrated circuits for the system were manipulated and later re-used in Gorf.[4] These included some circuits for graphics and chips that allowed for digitized speech that taunted the player with phrases like "Long live Gorf!" and "Prepare for annihilation, Space Cadet!"[4][6] The speech originated in chips designed for the Bally console.[6] Fenton recalled that "Quite a few were on the blue end of the spectrum but they still had obscenity laws back then! They had to be clean but still annoying enough to serve their purpose. My favourite? "Your end is near". That gets a lot of double entendres."[4]

Gorf began as a video game adaptation of the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Fenton was initially excited on the idea of an adaptation, but abandoned the idea after reading the script for the film, and deciding that they could not draw a great idea for a video game from the script.[4][6] She only used some leftover elements such as the boss flagship in Gorf resembling the USS Enterprise.[7]

Level design

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Fenton took over a year to develop the game with most of Gorf from home, to avoid interacting with her boss in the office.[8] During this period in video games, most games levels required players just to do the same task but in faster time, less resources, or with more enemies. Influenced by director D.W. Griffith, Fenton felt that Gorf should be like "cutting from one scene to another" and desired to make a multi-episodic game.[9]

She created three original levels, and two that borrowed from other arcade games. As Midway Manufacturing had arrangements with the Japanese companies Taito and Namco to distribute their games Space Invaders (1978) and Galaxian (1979) in the United States, they took creative license and used elements from each game as different-styled levels in Gorf.[10][5] These scenes have slight variations on the gameplay in both games, such as the group of enemies from Galaxian swooping en masse towards the players space ship.[9] The first level features a blue screen to represent Earth. It uses the Space Invaders elements is titled "Astro Battles". Fenton explained that the name change was done in order to "not promote that brand too much."[10] The third level Galaxians with it's extra s in its title attributed to being a misspelling on Fenton's part."[10]

The boss fight with the Gorfian flagship was in spired by the trench run scene in Star Wars (1977). Fenton joked that "back then, people would shamelessly use other people's ideas."[9]

Release

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Gorf field tested alongside Pac-Man (1980) in the United States.[7] Gorf was published by Midway Manufacturing and distributed to arcades in the United States in February 1981.[5]

Gorf was ported to the Atari 8-bit computers, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, BBC Micro, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, and VIC-20 by multiple developers between 1982 and 1983.[citation needed] Fenton said that Galaxian was the first game Bally had lost rights to and suggested that this was the reason why ports of the game had not included the Galaxians level."[10] The Commodore 64 port is the only one with synthesized speech—via the Magic Voice Speech module.[11][better source needed]

Reception

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In the September 1981 issue of Play Meter, which reflected sales from July 3, Gorf made number one in Play Meter arcade charts. In the immediately preceding and following polls it was fifth and third, respectively.[26] Gorf was described by Paul Drury in Retro Gamer as providing the distributor with its biggest arcade hit since Gun Fight.[10]

The Atari 2600 version of the game received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "Best Solitaire Video Game" at the 4th annual Arkie Awards,[23][27] and received the "1984 Best Computer Game Audio-Visual Effects" award at the 5th Arkies the following year. At the 5th Arkies, the judges indicated that the Atari versions had out-polled both the ColecoVision and Commodore 64 versions of the game, and they suggested it is the game's "varied action" which "keeps players coming back again and again".[24]

Regarding the VIC-20 version, Electronic Games wrote that "this fast-moving colorful entry is a must ... one of the best games available for the VIC-20",[28] and Ahoy! stated that the VIC-20 version "still has my vote for the best of the bunch ... The graphics are excellent".[29]

Gorf is included in the 2010 book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die.[30][needs context]

Legacy

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Following the financial success of Gorf, Fenton began developing a sequel titled Ms Gorf that was coded in Forth.[6][10] She used two Z80-based comptuers, with each handling the games code and animation respectively.[10] The game was ultimately cancelled.[31] Fenton described the unreleased game as "like a game you create as you play it", saying it featured levels where the ship was like a paintbrush, and could create obstacles on the playfield that would speed or slow the player down player. Fenton described the game had a few levels that "weren't well defined. It never really came together as a whole narrative the way Gorf did."[10] The code for Ms. Gorf exists on 8" floppy disks labeled "RIP Ms. GORF 6/82 - 8/83".[6][10][31]

In 2006, an unlicensed port of Gorf was released for the Atari Jaguar CD by hobbyist developer 3D Stooges Software Studios.[32][33][34] Another hobbyist clone for the Game Boy Advance was made available in 2010.[35] Other independent developers have also created titles influenced by Gorf on other platforms.[36][37][38]

Competitive play

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On July 8, 2019, Matthew Garrett set a new world record score in Gorf of 1,543,160 points, recognized by Twin Galaxies. His game spanned 953 missions across 6 hours 41 minutes. Garrett holds the world record for both the arcade 3 & 6 life settings and is the first person recorded to reach mission 500 (having beaten each of the 5 individual levels 100 times) without losing a life. The previous world record was set by Keith Swanson in 2011 with a score of 1,129,660.[39]

See also

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  • Stratovox (1980), first arcade game with synthesized voice

References

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  1. ^ "Atari 400 800 XL XE - Gorf". atarimania.com. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  2. ^ Blanchet 1982, p. 101.
  3. ^ Hirschfeld 1981, p. 30.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Drury 2010, p. 65.
  5. ^ a b c Akagi 2006, pp. 124–125.
  6. ^ a b c d e William.
  7. ^ a b Drury 2010, pp. 65–66.
  8. ^ Drury 2010, pp. 66–67.
  9. ^ a b c Drury 2010, p. 66.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Drury 2010, p. 67.
  11. ^ Lemon, Kim (2003). "Gorf - Commodore 64, C64 Games, Reviews & Music!". lemon64.com. Archived from the original on April 22, 2019. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  12. ^ Green.
  13. ^ Weiss.
  14. ^ Weiss 2024.
  15. ^ "Software R•E•V•I•E•W•S: Commodore Aliens Back To Basics... - Gorf". Computer and Video Games. No. 22. Future Publishing. August 1983. p. 109.[dead link‍]
  16. ^ Computer and Video Games 1989, p. 57.
  17. ^ Spencer 2007.
  18. ^ Dimetrosky 1982, pp. 69–70.
  19. ^ Mills 1983, p. 69.
  20. ^ Steere 1983, p. 56.
  21. ^ Donald 1983, p. 33.
  22. ^ Dimetrosky 1983, p. 54.
  23. ^ a b Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (February 1983). "Arcade Alley: The Fourth Annual Arcade Awards". Video. Vol. 6, no. 11. Reese Communications. pp. 30, 108. ISSN 0147-8907.
  24. ^ a b Kunkel, Bill; Katz, Arnie (February 1984). "Arcade Alley: The 1984 Arcade Awards, Part II". Video. Vol. 7, no. 11. Reese Communications. pp. 28–29. ISSN 0147-8907.
  25. ^ Semrad, Steve (February 2006). "The Greatest 200 Videogames Of Their Time". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 200. Ziff Davis. p. 76.
  26. ^ Kubey 1982, p. 121.
  27. ^ "TeleMatch Test - Gorf (Atari VCS) - Eine Kreuzung aus mehreren Weltraumspielen". TeleMatch (in German). No. 5. TeleMatch Verlag. September 1983. p. 28. ISSN 0174-741X. Archived from the original on July 12, 2013. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  28. ^ Komar, Charlene (June 1983). "Computer Gaming - Gorf - 'Four Scenarios of Fighting Aliens Make Gorf a Tough Test'". Electronic Games. No. 16. Reese Publishing Company. p. 69. Archived from the original on January 7, 2015. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  29. ^ Salm, Walter (March 1984). "VIC Game Buyer's Guide". Ahoy!. p. 49. Archived from the original on December 10, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2014.
  30. ^ Mott, Tony (2010). 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die. Universe Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7893-2090-2.
  31. ^ a b Newitz 2001.
  32. ^ "En Bref... - Jaguar". ReVival (in French). No. 31. ABCD Dire. June 9, 2006. pp. 9–10.
  33. ^ Szczepaniak, John (July 2006). "Retroinspection: Atari Jaguar". Retro Gamer. No. 26. Imagine Publishing. pp. 48–53. (Transcription Archived 2015-09-06 at the Wayback Machine).
    "Perfect 10: Atari Jaguar - Perfect Ten Games". Retro Gamer. No. 26. Imagine Publishing. June 22, 2006. pp. 54–55. (Transcription Archived 2017-01-19 at the Wayback Machine).
  34. ^ McFerran, Damien (July 7, 2023). "Best Atari Jaguar Games". Time Extension. Hookshot Media. Archived from the original on 2023-07-07. Retrieved 2023-07-07.
  35. ^ Ragan, Jess (April 4, 2010). "GameBoy Advance GORF". gbadev.org. Archived from the original on August 10, 2015. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
  36. ^ "Left Overs - Hardcore Gaming Info We Couldn't Put Anywhere Else - The Jaguar Roars". GameGO!. Vol. 1, no. 1. Video Game Depot Corp. June 2001. p. 62.
  37. ^ Dolce, Mike (May 19, 2002). "Preview - Gorf Pluz / Gorf 2K". Jaguar Front Page News. Archived from the original on April 9, 2007. Retrieved June 22, 2019.
  38. ^ "Gorf Pluz Coming For Jaguar, Dreamcast, and PC". DCVision. Consolevision.com. 5 August 2005. Archived from the original on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  39. ^ "Gorf". Twin Galaxies. July 8, 2019. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2020-08-15.

Sources

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