Location-Twelve
LASER GAMES: Your
ASTRON BEL T:
The blast-'em space game and the start of it all. The Sega game was
the first to be launched nearly 14 months aga in Japan. That was a
prototype; the production line model is something else.
Long-in-the-tooth by laser game standards, but still challenging with
renewed production in Europe and a late release in the United
States.
DRAGON'$ LAIR:
The Cinematronics game which perhaps did more to get the laser
game moving than anything else. Launched at AOE in Chicago last
spring, it creamed off much of the US laser market before the
heavyweight competition moved in. ln tact Atari took a licence on it
for Europe while the hiccups in their own game were being ironed
out. A fantasy extravaganza, Dragon's Lair is probably the most
different theme of all.
BEGA'S BATTLE:
From Japanese manufacturers Data East and perhaps the only one
to challenge the accolade at the end of the Dragon's Lair run-down.
A fantasy of brilliant depths, Bega's Battle is certainly one of the most
underrated laser games of them all. That perhaps has something to
do with the tact that Data East have not been as organised in their
publicity and advertising as their opponents.
FIREFOX:
Who knows? This issue of Location carries an Atari advertisement
on their new game, based on the Clint Eastwood film, which nearly
made it to AMOA but didn't quite. A cabinet was there but the
software wasn't quite right. We expect something mind-blowing, or
we really wouldn't expect Atari to make it at all.
CLIFF HANGER
A Stern game with a cartoon basis and a caps and robbers theme
which had a certain appeal, spoiled only by the first image on the
screen-someone hanging from a gibbet. Remember the
media-bashing the trade had from the video game in which you had
to mow down people in a car? A gibbet scene could be inviting the
same aggravation.
BADLANDS:
A little Konami game from Japan -which is desperately simple, but is
nevertheless a laser game. lt is little more than a reaction tester, a
quick-draw against a gunslinger exercise with cartoon graphies.
Simple fun for arcades.
CUBE OUEST:
This was a new laser game from a new company, Simutrek of
California. To be frank it was a bewildering adventure through a
wonderland of geometry lassons that left our rather jaundiced eye
utterly confused. Someone did remark, however, that 16-year-olds
understand it immediately, which at the end of the day is what it's all
about.
INTER STELLAR:
Funai is a Japanese electronics company immensely larger than its
unheard-of name suggests. Their's was the first game to directly
challenge Astron Belt. Same theme, different images and largely
different affects. Equally as good though.