Zaxxon

From Sega Retro

n/a

  • Zaxxon hardware
  • SG-1000
  • Atari 5200
  • Atari ST
  • ColecoVision
  • Intellivision

Zaxxon Arcade Title.png

Zaxxon SG1000 Title.png

Zaxxon 5200 Title.png

Zaxxon ST title.png

Zaxxon ColecoVision Title.png

Zaxxon Intellvision Title.png

Zaxxon
System(s): Sega Zaxxon hardware, SG-1000, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Virtual Console
Publisher:
Arcade (Zaxxon hardware)
SG-1000
Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (JP)
Arcade (Zaxxon hardware)
Sega/Gremlin (US)
Atari 5200
Sega Enterprises, Inc. (JP)
Wii Virtual Console
Sega Corporation
Atari 2600
ColecoVision
Intellivision
Coleco (US)
Atari 2600
ColecoVision
Intellivision
CBS Electronics (EU)
Developer:
Distributor:
Arcade (Zaxxon hardware)
Löwen-Automaten (DE)
Genre: Shooting[3]

















Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code
Arcade (Zaxxon hardware)
JP		 ¥? ?
Arcade (Zaxxon hardware)
US		 $? ?
Arcade (Zaxxon hardware)
EU		 €? ?
































Intellivision
US
Intellivision
EU
ColecoVision
US
ColecoVision
EU
Atari 2600
US
Atari 2600
EU
Atari 2600
BR
Atari 5200
US 		008-02
SG-1000
JP 		¥4,3004,300[3] G-1038
SG-1000
TW 		B-038
Wii Virtual Console
JP ▼
(Arcade) 		500pts500[21]
CERO: A
Wii Virtual Console
US ▼
(Arcade) 		800pts800[17]
ESRB: Everyone
Wii Virtual Console
EU ▼
(Arcade) 		500pts500[18]
PEGI: 7+
For the home computer conversions, see Zaxxon (home computers).

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. It had a limited Japanese arcade release in December 1981,[22][23][6] before receiving a wide release in January 1982.[24][21]

Zaxxon was the first video game to use an isometric perspective, a graphical style which would see widespread use in the years which followed. It was an early attempt at adding three-dimensional depth to the shoot 'em up genre.

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.

History

Release

Zaxxon cabinets being assembled at Gremlin Industries' San Diego factory

The game first had a limited Japanese arcade release in December 1981.[22][23] Despite having only a limited release that year, it became 1981's 18th highest-grossing arcade game in Japan.[6] It eventually received a wide release in January 1982.[24][21]

Zaxxon was the first arcade game to be advertised on US television. A commercial was produced with help from Sega's then-owners Paramount Pictures for $150,000.[25] It aired on local television stations in Los Angeles (which aired it first on June 22),[26] Chicago, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania between July 12 (11 in Chicago) through to July 25, 1982.[27]

David Rosen is claimed to have been the brainchild behind the project, having teamed up with Jerry Kramer Associates to produce the commercial[28]. They, in turn, contracted Mathematical Applications Group Inc. (MAGI; best known for the special effects in the movie Tron) to produce what was then cutting edge 3D graphics.[28]

The full budget for the television campaign (including acquiring the airtime) was estimated to be between $500,000 and $1 million[28]. In Los Angeles, the commercial aired during syndicated repeats of Saturday Night Live, Kung Fu, MASH, The Jeffersons, American Bandstand, Fridays and SCTV[28]. It ws also broadcast 15 times during a KTLA all-day Star Trek marathon (Star Trek being another Paramount property)[28].

The commercial was successful, and was said to not only double trade in some venues, but encourage new customers to visit the arcades specifically for the game[27]. Rivals such as Williams Electronics, Stern Electronics and Taito also praised the advert for attracting potential arcade customers[28].

Legacy

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).

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, with a PAL release also planned[29], 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 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

Arcade version

Source:
Uncredited


SG-1000 version

Source:
Uncredited


Magazine articles

Main article: Zaxxon/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Main article: Zaxxon/Promotional material.

Artwork

Zaxxon logo.png
Zaxxon logo.png

Photo gallery

  • US arcade cabinet

  • Zaxxon Arcade US Cabinet Front.jpg

  • DE arcade cabinet

Physical scans

Arcade version

Zaxxon hardware, US
Zaxxon Arcade US Marquee.jpg
Zaxxon Arcade US Manual.pdf
Manual
Zaxxon hardware, FR
Zaxxon hardware, DE
Zaxxon Arcade DE Marquee.jpg
Zaxxon Arcade DE ControlPanel.jpg
Zaxxon hardware, JP
Notavailable.svgZaxxon Arcade JP InstructionCard.jpg
Instuction card(s)

US service notes

  • 1

  • 2

  • 4

  • 5

  • 6

  • 7

  • 8

  • 9

  • 10

  • 12

  • 1982-07-26 bulletin

  • Joystick modification instructions

SG-1000 version

SG-1000, JP
Zaxxon SG-1000 JP Top.jpg
Zaxxon SG1000 JP Box Back.jpgZaxxon SG-1000 JP Spine.jpgZaxxon SG1000 JP Box Front.jpgZaxxon SG-1000 JP Spine2.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon SG-1000 JP Carttop.jpg
Zaxxon SG1000 JP Cart.jpg
Cart
ZaxxonSGJPManual.pdf
Manual
SG-1000, TH

Zaxxon SG1000 TH Cart Back.jpgZaxxon SG1000 JP Cart.jpg
Cart
SG-1000, TW

Atari 2600 version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
{{{{{icon}}}|L}} Division by zero.
Based on
0 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)
35
[33]
Computer & Video Games (UK)
63
[34]
Atari 2600
 49
Based on
2 reviews

Zaxxon

Atari 2600, US
Zaxxon Atari2600 US Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon Atari2600 US Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon Atari2600 US Cart.jpg
Cart
Zaxxon Atari 2600 US Manual.pdf
Manual
Atari 2600, EU

Zaxxon Atari2600 EU CBS Cart.jpg
Cart
Atari 2600, UK
Zaxxon 2600 UK Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon 2600 UK Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon Atari2600 UK CBS Cart.jpg
Cart
Atari 2600, FR
Zaxxon 2600 FR Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon 2600 FR Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon Atari2600 DE CBS Cart.jpg
Cart
Atari 2600, DE

Zaxxon Atari2600 DE CBS Cart.jpg
Cart
Atari 2600, DE (alt)

Atari 2600, CA
Zaxxon Atari2600 CA Coleco Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon Atari2600 CA Coleco Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon Atari2600 CA Coleco Cart1.jpg
Cart
Zaxxon Atari2600 CA Coleco Cart2.jpg
Alternative cart
Atari 2600, BR (Tron)

Zaxxon Atari2600 BR Tron Cart.jpg
Cart
Atari 2600, BR (Intellivision)

Zaxxon Atari2600 BR Intellivision Cart.jpg
Cart
Atari 2600, BR (Dynacom)

Zaxxon Atari2600 BR Dynacom Cart Back.jpgZaxxon Atari2600 BR Dynacom Cart.jpg
Cart

Atari 5200 version

Atari 5200, US
Zaxxon Atari5200 US Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon Atari5200 US Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon Atari5200 US Cart.jpg
Cart
Zaxxon 5200 us manual.pdf
Manual

ColecoVision version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
90 №3
ColecoVision
 90
Based on
1 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Arcade Express (US)
89
[35]
Complete Guide to Consoles (UK)
55
[33]
TeleMatch (DE)
80
[36]
Tilt (FR)
100
[37]
ColecoVision
 81
Based on
4 reviews

Zaxxon

ColecoVision, US
Zaxxon ColecoVision US Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon ColecoVision US Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon coleco us cart.jpg
Cart
Zaxxon coleco us manual.pdf
Manual
ColecoVision, EU
Zaxxon ColecoVision EU Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon ColecoVision EU Cart Top.jpg
Zaxxon ColecoVision EU Cart Back.jpgZaxxon ColecoVision EU Cart.jpg
Cart
Zaxxon coleco eu manual.pdf
Manual
ColecoVision, UK
Zaxxon ColecoVision UK Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon ColecoVision UK Cart.jpg
Cart
ColecoVision, FR
Zaxxon ColecoVision FR Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon ColecoVision FR Box.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon ColecoVision FR CBS Cart.jpg
Cart
ColecoVision, DE
Zaxxon Coleco DE Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon Coleco DE Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon Coleco DE Cart Back.jpgZaxxon Coleco DE Cart.jpg
Cart
ColecoVision, CA

ColecoVision, AU
Zaxxon ColecoVision AU Box.jpg
Cover

Intellivision version

Sega Retro Average 
Publication Score Source
20 №9
Intellivision
 20
Based on
1 review
Sega Retro Average 
Publication Version Score
Intellivision
 N/A
Based on
0 reviews

Zaxxon

Intellivision, US
Zaxxon Intellivision US Box Back.jpgNospine.pngZaxxon Intellivision US Box Front.jpg
Cover
Zaxxon Intellivision US Cart.jpg
Cart
Zaxxon Intellivision US Manual.pdf
Manual
Intellivision, EU
Zaxxon Intellivision EU Box Front.jpg
Cover
Intellivision, UK

Zaxxon Intellivision UK CBS Cart.jpg
Cart
Intellivision, DE

Technical information

ROM dump status

System Hash Size Build Date Source Comments
SG-1000
 ?
CRC32 905467e4
MD5 52bbf5336c190610a0fb1ab0bdaca455
SHA-1 e32f536c3576d41ab485e07809c4404e6b462443
32kB Cartridge (JP)
SG-1000
 ?
CRC32 49cae925
MD5 bb1c5b1071d5b9224b7733d60465e769
SHA-1 172a8ff1a574d7920906c5cf60e1d39f31b9b639
32kB Cartridge (TW)

External links

  • Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Arcade (archive)
  • Nintendo catalogue pages: US (archive)

References

  1. ↑ File:ZaxxonSGJPManual.pdf, page 22
  2. ↑ https://www.mtwo.co.jp/development/retrogame-2/#tab-3 (Wayback Machine: 2020-10-29 22:32)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 https://sega.jp/history/hard/sc3000/software.html (Wayback Machine: 2020-09-28 02:34)
  4. ↑ https://cocatalog.loc.gov
  5. ↑ https://cocatalog.loc.gov (Wayback Machine: 2023-12-26 01:40)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Game Machine, "1982-02-15" (JP; 1982-02-15), page 4
  7. ↑ https://archive.org/details/ArcadeGameList1971-2005/page/n132
  8. ↑ Computer & Video Games, "August 1982" (UK; 1982-07-xx), page 26
  9. ↑ https://flyers.arcade-museum.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=2976
  10. ↑ Computer Entertainer, "September 1983" (US; 1983-09-xx), page 16
  11. ↑ Computer Entertainer, "October 1982" (US; 1982-10-xx), page 6
  12. ↑ TV Gamer, "Autumn 1983" (UK; 1983-xx-xx), page 18
  13. ↑ Computer & Video Games, "June 1984" (UK; 1984-05-16), page 53
  14. ↑ TV Gamer, "Autumn 1983" (UK; 1983-xx-xx), page 42
  15. ↑ Computer Entertainer, "May 1983" (US; 1983-05-xx), page 16
  16. ↑ Game Machine, "1985-07-15" (JP; 1985-07-15), page 9
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ZnkHCnm2XvA6xyPltLxrYMKTFCr-SGTb (Wayback Machine: 2010-11-22 21:05)
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 http://www.nintendolife.com/games/vcarcade/zaxxon (Wayback Machine: 2017-11-21 00:18)
  19. ↑ https://www.nintendo.fr/Jeux/Console-virtuelle-Wii-/Zaxxon--280317.html (archive.today)
  20. ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/vc/software/12.html (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-22 01:54)
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 http://vc.sega.jp:80/vca_zaxxon (Wayback Machine: 2009-12-16 17:35)
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=5&ti=1,5&Search%5FArg=Zaxxon&Search%5FCode=TALL&CNT=25&PID=JvsIgMkuBfZ6eMMKEFG491bItER&SEQ=20231225203321&SID=1 (Wayback Machine: 2023-12-26 01:35)
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 https://cocatalog.loc.gov/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?v1=6&ti=1,6&Search%5FArg=Zaxxon&Search%5FCode=TALL&CNT=25&PID=JvsIgMkuBfZ6eMMKEFG491bItER&SEQ=20231225203321&SID=1 (Wayback Machine: 2023-12-26 01:40)
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Sega Arcade History, Enterbrain, page 49
  25. ↑ File:WilmingtonMorningStar US 1982-07-03 6C.png
  26. ↑ File:PlayMeter US Volume 08 No. 15.pdf, page 15
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Cash Box, "July 24, 1982" (US; 1982-07-24), page 39
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 Cash Box, "July 10, 1982" (US; 1982-07-10), page 30
  29. ↑ File:John Sands Sega Retail Price List Jun 1985.pdf, page 2
  30. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UaHrRulyzA (Wayback Machine: 2023-01-14 10:54)
  31. ↑ @okunari on Twitter (Wayback Machine: 2023-02-01 11:40)
  32. ↑ http://www.iris.dti.ne.jp/~haya-c/funkykh/profile.html (Wayback Machine: 2023-06-08 06:24)
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Complete Guide to Consoles, "" (UK; 1989-10-16), page 77
  34. ↑ Computer & Video Games, "June 1984" (UK; 1984-05-16), page 52
  35. ↑ Arcade Express, "Volume One, Number Eight: November 21, 1982" (US; 1982-11-21), page 6
  36. ↑ TeleMatch, "August/September 1983" (DE; 1983-07-25), page 27
  37. ↑ Tilt, "Juillet/Août 1983" (FR; 1983-0x-xx), page 36


Zaxxon

Zaxxon Arcade Title.png

Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Magazine articles | Reception | Promotional material | Merchandise | Clones


Books: The Official How to Win at Zaxxon (1982)

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Games in the Zaxxon Series
Zaxxon (1981) (home computers) | Super Zaxxon (1982) | Zaxxon Super Game (1984) | Zaxxon 3D (1987) | Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 (1995) | Zaxxon Escape (2012)
Others
Zaxxon (LCD) (1982) | FL Zaxxon (1982) | Zaxxon (tabletop) (1982) | Zaxxon (board game) (1982)
Zaxxon related media
Book
 The Official How to Win at Zaxxon (1982)
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