Zaxxon
From Sega Retro
- For the home computer conversions, see Zaxxon (home computers).
Zaxxon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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System(s): Sega Zaxxon hardware, SG-1000, Atari 2600, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Intellivision, Virtual Console | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Publisher: Sega, Coleco | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Developer: Sega R&D2, Ikegami Tsushinki, Coleco | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genre: Shoot-'em-Up | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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CERO
Missing Parameter! |
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. It was an early attempt at adding three-dimensional depth to the shoot 'em up genre.
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 Sega's then-owners Paramount Pictures for $150,000[7].
Contents
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
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, 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
Magazine articles
- Main article: Zaxxon/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
- Main article: Zaxxon/Promotional material.
Photo gallery
Physical scans
Arcade version
Zaxxon hardware, FR | ||||
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Zaxxon hardware, JP | ||||
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SG-1000 version
SG-1000, TW |
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Atari 2600 version
Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||
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49 | |
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Based on 2 reviews |
Atari 2600, DE (alt) |
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Atari 5200 version
ColecoVision version
Sega Retro Average | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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81 | |
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Based on 4 reviews |
ColecoVision, CA |
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Intellivision version
Sega Retro Average | ||||
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N/A | |
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Based on 0 reviews |
Intellivision, DE |
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Technical information
ROM dump status
System | Hash | Size | Build Date | Source | Comments | |||||||||
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? |
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32kB | Cartridge (JP) | |||||||||||
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32kB | Cartridge (TW) |
External links
- Sega of Japan Virtual Console pages: Arcade
References
- ↑ http://sega-interactive.co.jp/special/history/title/zaxxon.html
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 http://vc.sega.jp:80/vca_zaxxon (Wayback Machine: 2009-12-16 17:35)
- ↑ File:TVGamer UK 02.pdf, page 18
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ZnkHCnm2XvA6xyPltLxrYMKTFCr-SGTb (Wayback Machine: 2010-11-22 21:05)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 http://www.nintendolife.com/games/vcarcade/zaxxon (Wayback Machine: 2017-11-21 00:18)
- ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/wii/vc/software/12.html (Wayback Machine: 2018-03-22 01:54)
- ↑ File:WilmingtonMorningStar US 1982-07-03 6C.png
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 File:CVG UK 032.pdf, page 52 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>
tag; name ":File:CVG UK 032.pdf_p52" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 9.0 9.1 Complete Guide to Consoles, "" (UK; 1989-10-16), page 77
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 File:ArcadeExpress US 0108.pdf, page 6 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>
tag; name ":File:ArcadeExpress US 0108.pdf_p6" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ 11.0 11.1 File:TeleMatch DE 05.pdf, page 27 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>
tag; name ":File:TeleMatch DE 05.pdf_p27" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Tilt, "Juillet/Août 1983" (FR; 1983-0x-xx), page 36
- ↑ File:TeleMatch DE 09.pdf, page 28
Zaxxon | |
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Main page | Comparisons | Maps | Magazine articles | Reception | Promotional material | Merchandise | Clones
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Games in the Zaxxon Series | |
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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 | |
The Official How to Win at Zaxxon (1982) |
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