n/a

Zaxxon
Publisher: Sega, Coleco, Datasoft, Philips (EU), Pony Canyon (JP), Cogito, U.S. Gold Developer: Sega, Ikegami Tsushinki, Coleco, Synsoft System(s): Sega Zaxxon hardware, Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit family, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, DOS, Dragon 32, Intellivision, MSX, SG-1000, TRS-80, TRS-80 CoCo, Virtual Console, ZX Spectrum Genre: Shoot-'em-Up Release Date RRP Code US 1982 $?  ? DE 198x  ?  ? JP 1985 ¥4,300 G-1038 TW 198x NT$?  ? US (cartridge) 1984 $?  ? UK (cassette) 1984 £9.95  ? US 1983 $?  ? US 1983 $?  ? US 1983 $?  ? JP 1985 ¥?  ? US 1983 $? 26-1956 US 1983 $?  ? US 1982 $?  ? EU 1982 £29.95  ? BR 1982 $?  ? US 1984 $?  ? US 1982 $?  ? EU 1983 £?  ? US 1983 $?  ? EU 1983 £?  ? JP (Arcade) 2009-12-15 500 points  ? US (Arcade) 2010-04-12 800 points  ? EU (Arcade) 2010-03-05 500 points  ? ESRB PEGI OFLC CERO

Zaxxon (ザクソン) is an arcade shoot 'em up video game released by Sega. It is named after its groundbreaking use of axonometric projection (though more specifically, it uses isometric projection) and was released for bespoke arcade hardware in 1982. Zaxxon was the first video game to use an isometric perspective, a graphical style which would see widespread use in the years which followed.

Zaxxon stands as one of Sega's earliest video game successes, and is also notable for being the first arcade game to be advertised on US television, with a commercial being produced by Paramount Pictures for $150,000.

Gameplay

In Zaxxon, the player controls a starship which continuously moves towards the top right of the screen - a "diagonal" sidescroller, as opposed to the horizontal or vertical shooters more commonly seen. The basic idea is to shoot at and destroy enemies within a space fortress to rank up points, while avoiding obstacles and enemy fire.

What made Zaxxon unique at the time was the ability for the player to adjust the ship's height as well as move the craft left and right, essentially creating one of the first three-dimensional shooters (though the player can still only move in two dimensions, as he/she cannot stop the ship from moving forward). With this comes the task of navigating scenery - Zaxxon has levels which take part in space stations, and the player must duck and dive to avoid crashing into objects. Furthermore missiles can be launched upwards from the ground (similar to Scramble by Konami), and the player must obtain fuel to stay airbourne.

Sequels and Re-releases

Zaxxon stands as one of Sega's first big successes in the arcade video game market, and was subsequently brought to a plethora of home systems during the early 1980s, being one of the most widely ported Sega games in history. The hardware behind the game also went in to fuel other isometric arcade games, such as Congo Bongo and Future Spy.

The Atari 2600 and Intellivision versions of the game (published by Coleco) are the most radically different, opting for a third-person "behind the ship" view rather than an isometric one, presumably due to hardware limitations. It has been suggested, however, that Coleco purposely dumbed down these versions for competition purposes - their ColecoVision port was for many years the most accurate home copy of the game, however skipped a few levels due to cartridge restrictions (something later fixed with Zaxxon Super Game for Coleco's Adam computer).

For a while, Datasoft had the rights to computer cassette and disk versions of the game in North America and Europe, producing ports to the Apple II, Atari 8-bit computer line, Commodore 64 Dragon 32, TRS-80 and TRS-80 CoCo. Zaxxon was among the first licensed TRS-80 (and TRS-CoCo) video games to be released - up until this point few major video game developers supported either of Tandy's machines, so it was more common to see unofficial clones (and indeed many clones of Zaxxon would emerge in the following years, such as Zaksund and Z-89).

As well as Datasoft's version, another official port of Zaxxon produced for the Commodore 64 and released on cartridge. The cartridge version has more accurate visuals but is generally regarded as less playable. U.S. Gold also published versions of Zaxxon for the ZX Spectrum, while an MSX version was published by Pony Canyon (on cartridge) in Japan and by Philips (on cassette) in Europe. Also released was an IBM PC version in the "PC Booter" format. An Atari 5200 version similar to the Atari computers copy was also released.

Sega produced their own home port of the game for Japanese SG-1000s in 1985, however held back from bringing the game to more modern Sega platforms. Zaxxon was not seen again until a surprise appearance in the Sega Mega Drive Collection and Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection compilations, and in more recent times, the arcade version has been made available through the Wii's Virtual Console service.

As one of Sega's first success stories, Zaxxon was also turned into a board game by Milton Bradley in 1982. Bandai and Coleco also released VFD and LCD versions of the game, in the form of a tabletop Zaxxon, FL Zaxxon and a handheld Zaxxon. Curiously, Sega of America, through its blog, has erroneously laid claim to several other versions of Zaxxon - a homebrew Commodore Amiga version from 1995, and a version for the Dragon 32/64 computer (based on the TRS-80 CoCo version), whose legitimacy has yet to be verified.

Zaxxon was followed in the arcades by Super Zaxxon, which despite offering similar gameplay, was far less successful. Also created was Zaxxon 3D for the Sega Master System and Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 for the Sega 32X.

Production Credits

Apple II Version

Game Programming by: John Garcia
Assisted by: Jim Ratcliff
Graphic Artist: Kelly Day
Documentation: Jean Stedman

Commodore 64 Version

C64 Version by Peter Adams

Gallery

• 

  US arcade cabinet

• 

  DE arcade cabinet

Promotional Material

• 

  Arcade TV advert

• 

  Arcade US flyer

• 

  Arcade US flyer (Alt)

• 

  Arcade FR flyer

• 

  Arcade DE flyer

• 

  Home versions US print advert

• 

  Apple II/Atari 8-bit family/TRS-80 CoCo US print advert

• 

  Commodore 64/ZX Spectrum UK print advert

• 

  ColecoVision NL print advert

Physical Scans

Arcade Version

Arcade, US
Manual

Arcade, FR

Arcade, DE

SG-1000 Version

SG-1000, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

SG-1000, TW

Apple II Version

Apple II, US
Cover
Manual

Apple II, US (alt)
Cover

Atari 2600 Version

	70	Sega Retro Average
		Based on 1 review
Publication Score Source Computer & Video Games 70 №32

Atari 2600, US
Cover
Cart

Atari 2600, EU
Cart

Atari 2600, UK
Cover
Cart

Atari 2600, FR
Cover
Cart

Atari 2600, DE
Cart

Atari 2600, DE (alt)

Atari 2600, CA
Cover
Cart Alternative cart

Atari 2600, BR (Tron)
Cart

Atari 2600, BR (Intellivision)
Cart

Atari 2600, BR (Dynacom)
Cart

Atari 5200 Version

Atari 5200, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Atari 8-bit Family Version

Atari 8-bit family, US (cartridge)
Cover
Cart

Atari 8-bit family, US (cassette)
Cover
Cassette

Atari 8-bit family, US (cassette) (alt)
Cover
Cassette

Atari 8-bit family, US (disk)
Cover
Disk

Atari 8-bit family, UK (cassette)
Cover

Atari 8-bit family, FR (cassette)
Cover

ColecoVision Version

	90	Sega Retro Average
		Based on 1 review
Publication Score Source JoyStik 90 №3

ColecoVision, US
Cover
Cart

ColecoVision, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

ColecoVision, UK
Cover
Cart

ColecoVision, FR
Cover
Cart

ColecoVision, DE

ColecoVision, CA

ColecoVision, AU
Cover

Commodore 64 Version

	87	Sega Retro Average
		Based on 1 review
Publication Score Source Computer & Video Games 87 №33

Commodore 64, US (cartridge)
Cover
Cart

Commodore 64, US (disk)
Cover

Commodore 64, US (disk) (Thunder Mountain)
Cover

Commodore 64, UK (cassette)
Cover

Commodore 64, UK (disk)
Cover

DOS Version

DOS, US

Dragon 32 Version

Dragon 32, EU

Intellivision Version

	20	Sega Retro Average
		Based on 1 review
Publication Score Source JoyStik 20 №9

Intellivision, US
Cover
Cart

Intellivision, EU
Cover

Intellivision, UK
Cart

Intellivision, DE

MSX Version

	97	Sega Retro Average
		Based on 1 review
Publication Score Source Computer & Video Games 97 №44

MSX, EU
Cover

MSX, JP
Cover

TRS-80 Version

TRS-80, US (cassette)

TRS-80, US (disk)
Cover

TRS-80 CoCo Version

TRS-80 CoCo, US
Cover

ZX Spectrum Version

ZX Spectrum, UK
Cover

External links

• Sega of Japan Virtual Console Arcade page (Japanese)