The game is similar to the traditional game of tic-tac-toe, but is played on four 4×4 grids stacked vertically; it is basically a computerized version of the board game Qubic using traditional tic-tac-toe notation and layout. To win, a player must place four of their symbols on four squares that line up vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, on a single grid, or spaced evenly over all four grids. This creates a total of 76 possible ways to win, in comparison to eight possible ways to win on a standard 3×3 board. The game has nine variations: it can be played by two players against each other, or one player can play against a built-in AI on one of eight different difficulty settings. The game uses the standard joystick controller.
Football is one of the 12 original games that were shipped with the Magnavox Odyssey system. It runs on Cartridge No.3 and 4, and uses a game board field, american football tokens, yardage markers, a wide variety of game cards and an overlay.
3 rows of triangular balloons move along the top part of the screen, each overlaid with blue, green, and yellow (colors used in the original version), counting from the top row. A clown appears from the edge of the screen where there is a jumping board, and the player must move the seesaw located at the bottom of the screen so that the clown can bounce back off the seesaw once he jumps off from his starting position. If the player successfully gets the clown onto the seesaw, the clown on the other side shoots off into the air towards the 3 rows of balloons on the top of the screen. The clown may not have enough speed to reach the balloons if the first clown does not land squarely on the seesaw. Clowns bounce off of balloons, walls, and jumping boards, but will pass directly through multiple balloons if they are moving quickly enough. They will only bounce off the jumping boards when they are heading downwards, and will pass straight through the boards while moving upwards.
Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack is a computerized version of different types of Poker and Blackjack, including 7-Card Stud and 5-Card Draw. The player inputs how much "money" that is available to bet with. There is one and two-player games, and Las Vegas Poker & Blackjack includes a dealer to play against. Developed by John Brooks for APh Technological Consulting and published by Mattel Electronics
Ozma Wars is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade game, and the very first game developed and published by SNK, who were still known as "Shin Nihon Kikaku" at the time. The game is also known as the second ever vertical shoot 'em up game, after Taito's Space Invaders (which ran on the same arcade hardware), but is also additionally known as the first game with disparate "levels". The game is also notable for being the first action game to feature a supply of energy, resembling a life bar, a mechanic that has now become common in the majority of modern action games. The game allowed the player to refuel energy between each level, and it featured a large variety of alien enemies.
The player controls a space craft which must fend off UFOs, meteors, and comets. Instead of lives, the player is given an energy reserve that is constantly diminishing; getting hit by the enemy causes gameplay to stop momentarily and a large amount of energy is depleted. Every so often, a mothership will appear and dock with the player's spacecraft,
Intruder is an arcade game originally released by Konami as Space War. It is a one-on-one spaceship combat game with each player controlling a ship at the top or bottom of the screen. Between the players is a stream of innocent space ship traffic limiting the possibility of getting a clean shot.
When your fuel reaches a high number (like 75 or so) your laser will reach the other side of the screen to get your opponent. Once you fire your laser your fuel drops sharply and you must wait for it to build before you can shoot at your opponent again.
Space War is Konami's first known original video game design. It was licensed by Taito, who released it as Space Laser (in Europe), and by Game Plan, who released it as Intruder (in North America).
Asteroids is an arcade space shooter released in November 1979. The player controls a spaceship in an asteroid field which is periodically traversed by flying saucers. The objective of the game is to destroy both, asteroids and saucers. The triangular ship can rotate left and right, fire shots straight forward, and thrust forward. Once the ship begins moving in a direction, it will continue in that direction for a time without player intervention unless the player applies thrust in a different direction. The ship eventually comes to a stop when not thrusting. The player can also send the ship into hyperspace, causing it to disappear and reappear in a random location on the screen, at the risk of self-destructing or appearing on top of an asteroid.
Tail Gunner is vector arcade game created by Vectorbeam in 1979. As enemy space craft attack the player, they must aim a set of cross-hairs and shoot the enemies before they move past the player's laser cannons or use shield to bounce them back into play.
Star Trek: Phaser Strike is a shoot 'em up video game that was published by Milton Bradley in 1979, and released for the Microvision at the same time as the film Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In the game, the player must destroy ships with phaser banks located at the bottom of the screen. The Star Trek name was later dropped and the game was sold as Phaser Strike. It was sold under other names internationally: Shooting Star in Germany, Italy and UK, and Cannon Phaser in France and Canada.
Space Launcher is an arcade video game by Nintendo that was surprisingly original (many of the games Nintendo made during the late '70s were clones of popular titles like Pong, Space Invaders and Breakout). The game is similar to Frogger, though is not a clone since it predates it by at least two years. The game takes place in space, and your goal is to maneuver around space objects and dodge oncoming enemy fire from the aliens that are stationed above. There are also treasures at the top, and your goal is to fly up, grab the treasure, and come soaring back down after which you must repeat it until all of the treasures have been scavenged.
The game's poster seems to be inspired slightly by the Star Wars films, which were very successful at the time of this game's release. Even the yellow font of this game's logo could be said to be based on Star Wars' logo.
The game starts with the player's spacecraft docked inside the mothership at the top of the screen. Below the mothership is an asteroid field and below that, the surface of the moon. There are three platforms which can be landed on and six stranded astronauts that need rescuing. You control a small spacecraft. The player must press the button to release their spacecraft from the mothership and manoeuvre through the asteroid field. The craft can only move left or right or use up a finite amount of fuel by engaging the thrust (the same button again) to slow its descent. If the craft is landed successfully on one of the available platforms, one of the astronauts will run towards and board the craft.
The asteroid belt now changes into a swarm of flying saucers, some of which drop bombs. The player must now guide the spacecraft back up to the mothership (the craft ascends without using up fuel), avoiding the flying saucers. The thrust button is now a fire button which can be used to shoot at enemies above (as in Space
Cutie Q is is the third and final game in the Gee Bee trilogy.
The player controls a set of paddles with a rotary knob, the objective being to score as many points possible by deflecting a ball against blocks, ghosts, spinners and other objects on the playfield.
Cutie Q is described as Namco's first "character game", thanks to its use of colorful and cute character designs, a choice that would be a major influence on Toru Iwatani's next project, Pac-Man.
Monaco GP is an arcade game that was released by Sega in 1979. The game was released in three cabinet styles, a vertical upright cabinet, a cocktail table and sit-down 'deluxe' cabinet. A sequel, Pro Monaco GP, was released in 1980, and was later followed by Super Monaco GP and Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II. Monaco GP was ported to the SG-1000 in 1983.
Monkey Magic is a video game released in arcades by Nintendo in 1979. It is a Breakout clone and one of Nintendo's earliest arcade games. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on Monkey Magic. Players control a paddle to hit the ball at a large number of blocks shaping a monkey's face. Players can also earn different numbers of points by catching blocks that fall, as well as hitting the ball in different places.