War of the Worlds (arcade game)

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War of the Worlds
Developer(s) Tim Skelly
Publisher(s) Cinematronics
Designer(s) Tim Skelly
Platform(s) Arcade Game
Release date 1982 (Arcade)
Genre(s) Shooter game
Mode(s) Single player, 2 player alternating gameplay
Input methods 4 buttons
Cabinet Horizontal
CPU CCPU
Sound Amplified mono (one channel)
Display monochrome Vector

War of the Worlds was a monochrome vector arcade game created by Tim Skelly of Cinematronics in 1982. The game was basically a shooting game where the player controls a tank object at the bottom of the screen and shoots towards the top of the screen at descending Tripods robots in a first person perspective. The player only has movement, cannon fire and shields to protect them from the Tripods' lasers. It is believed to be based on the H.G.Wells story of the same name. The game was developed as a 3D version of Space Invaders but never lived up to the poor reception it received at the 1982 AMOA show. It was never put into wide production and a little less than ten actual units were made. Though different, the game was deemed too easy by some and games that are too easy don't receive much play. In addition to that the hardware was not fast enough to run the graphics at a good rate. The game experienced lags that made it's control somewhat difficult and not exciting to play. On an interesting note, the game while debuted on black and white vector monitors was actually written for a color vector monitor.

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