Play Meter

Challenging a
'boaau'
Kaos reigns
A new vertical maze video game,
Kaos made its debut at the AMOA
show in Chicago in October. It
marked Game Plan's first design in
the video field, with both hardware
and software created by Game Plan
personnel.
On Kaos, with a 19-inch full color
upright monitor, a little man chases
dollars, and if he doesn't catch them,
they drop to the bottom of the
screen and turn into dragons which
then try to catch the man. The man
must be kept in motion by the player
or he drops out of action at the
bottom of the screen.
The man in Kaos has a chance to
turn into a king and slay the dragons.
The object of the game is to build
points by gathering dollars or slaying
dragons, and not losing the little
man. Men move faster than dollars,
dragons faster than men.
Kaos features a sequence of eight
different video screens as the game
progresses, and the speed increases,
adding to the difficulty of the game
and the demand on skill. It is pro-
grammed to have bonus men
awarded for reaching 10,000; 30,000;
and 30,000 points. In addition, the
machine can deliver the money
units, called ERGS, on the same
point basis in the one- or two-player
game. Multi-colored bars with small
gaps form the vertical maze. Key to
difficulty is an invisible bar that
makes travel to the top of the screen
difficult- and exciting.
72
Centuri, Inc. has announced plans
for imm ediate marketing of
Challenger, its latest in video space
games. Developed and manufactured
by Centuri at its Hialeah, Florida
facilities, " Challenger is a space
monster, blast-'em-type video game
that is fast paced and high-scoring
and incorporates 16 phases of
increasingly difficult play," said
Centuri President Ed Miller.
Challenger tests the player's
ability at the start by confronting him
with up to ten large energy rings that
move randomly about the screen. As
the player blasts an e nergy ring, 100
points are displayed on the screen,
and the ring is replaced by two
smaller ones. Each smaller ring, in
turn, carries a score of 200 points
and also divides into two still smaller
rings, for which the player can earn
400 point each.
In single-player games, play ends
when all spaceships are destroyed.
In two-player games, plu.y alternates
after each ship is destroyed, with
players continuing from the point at
which their last ship was knocked
out. During each phase of the game,
Space Bogeys appear on the screen
at random and for varying lengths of
time. The player can skillfully avoid
the bogeys until they d isappear from
the screen, or can win 500 points by
blasting a bogey.
Challenger introduces three new
features: warp control, triple guns,
and a super bomb. When warp
control is ac tivated, the space ship
becomes smaller and moves to the
top of the screen where the image is
reversed- allowing the ship to fire
back toward the center of the screen.
The triple gun allows the player to
"shotgun" out of difficult situations.
The ultimate weapon, the super
bomb can be activated only once for
each ship and destroys everything
on the screen, giving the player
additional points. But the bomb is
lost if the ship is destroyed before its
firing.
PLAY M ETE R,
Janua ry 1, 1982