Bosconian
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| Bosconian | |
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| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | Midway |
| Release date(s) | 1981 |
| Genre(s) | Multi-directional shooter |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players, alternating turns |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Input | 8-way Joystick; 1 button |
| Arcade cabinet | Upright, cabaret, and cocktail |
| Arcade system(s) | Namco Galaga |
| Arcade display | Horizontal orientation, Raster |
Bosconian is a multi-directional shooter arcade game that was made by Namco in 1981. It runs on Namco Galaga hardware but with a video system like that used in Rally-X.
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[edit] Description
In Bosconian, the player controls a small fighter ship that can move in eight directions. The ship fires both forward and backward. Each level consists of a number of green space stations that must all be destroyed to advance to the next level. All space stations are alike: Each one consists of six cannons arranged in a hexagon, surrounding a red core in the center (accessible either horizontally or vertically, depending on how the station was placed). A station is destroyed by either destroying all six cannons or shooting the core. In later levels, the core begins shooting missiles and can protect itself with a closing door.
Additionally, the player must avoid (or destroy) asteroids, Cosmo-Mines, and a variety of enemy missiles that attempt to collide with the player's ship. Enemies will occasionally launch formation attacks consisting of four enemies and a leader. Destroying the leader will cause all remaining enemies to break formation and run away. Destroying all ships in the formation scores extra bonus points. Also, a spy ship appears occasionally, and is worth a random bonus value.
The most notable feature of this game is its use of digitized voice samples, a relatively new feature at the time. The audible messages used in the game are:
- "Blast off!" — Start of a round
- "Alert! Alert!" — Enemies approaching
- "Battle Stations!" — A formation attack has been launched
- "Spy ship sighted!" — A spy ship is nearby, worth extra points
- "Condition Red!" — The player has taken too long. Enemies appear much more frequently.
Like almost all early arcade games, Bosconian does not have an ending. Being an 8-bit game it has 255 levels in all, but it is not known for certain what happens if a player successfully completes level 255; the game would either loop back to level 1 again at that point (a-la Mappy), or lock up and became unplayable (a-la Galaga).
[edit] Legacy
Bosconian was one of Namco's less successful games, which is why it was not initially ported to any consoles. It was ported to several computer systems, including the Sharp X68000, MSX, Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, and later appeared in several of Namco's Namco Museum compilations for PlayStation and other consoles. A clone of Bosconian, named Draconian, was released for the TRS-80 Color Computer in 1984 by Tom Mix Software. A home computer sequel, Bosconian 87, was released in 1987 for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum. A sequel of sorts called Blast Off was released exclusively in Japan in 1989; it too was a commercial disappointment. Blast Off was a vertical-scrolling shooter, and had more in common gameplay-wise with Namco's own Dragon Spirit than with their Bosconian.
Dedicated Bosconian arcade machines have become somewhat of a rarity for arcade collectors, because many of them were converted to other, more profitable games over the years. Galaga was the most common conversion choice, because it uses the same basic hardware platform and wiring harness as Bosconian.
Some claim that Bosconian was the first game to allow players to insert more coins to continue a game from where they lost their last life. The concept of the continue, by this logic, comes from Bosconian. This distinction more properly belongs to Tempest.
[edit] Trivia
In the game Ridge Racer, a car has this game as a sponsor. It is a white and red car named RT Bosconian. Its sister car, from another Namco game is a white and blue car named RT Nebulasray. They were used in Ridge Racer, Ridge Racer 2, Ridge Racer 64, and Ridge Racer DS.
The origin of the keywords in Bosconian is Lensman.
- Bosconian — Boskonian
- I-Type missile — Eich
- P-Type missile — Ploor
- E-Type misslle — Eddore
[edit] Series
- 1. Bosconian (1981)
- 2. Blast Off (1989)
