| Elevator Action | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Taito |
| Publisher(s) | Taito |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release date(s) | 1983 |
| Genre(s) | Action, Side-scrolling, Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Up to 2 players |
| Cabinet | Upright |
| Display | Raster, standard resolution 256 x 224 (Horizontal) Colors 64 |
Elevator Action (エレベーターアクション Erebētā Akushon) is a 1983 arcade game by Taito. It debuted during the "Golden Age of Arcade Games". Innovative in gameplay, this game was very popular for many years, with game music created by musician Yoshino Imamura. The game was followed by a sequel, Elevator Action II (also known as Elevator Action Returns).
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The player assumes the role of a spy who infiltrates a building filled with elevators. He must collect secret documents from the building and traverse the 30 levels of the building using an increasingly complex series of elevators. The player is pursued by enemy agents who appear from behind closed doors. The player must outwit them via force or evasion. Successful completion of a level involves collecting all the secret documents and traversing the building from top to bottom. In the lower floors of the building, the elevator systems are so complex that some puzzle-solving skills are needed.
The game cabinet is a standard upright. The controls consisted of a 4-way joystick and two buttons, one for "shoot" and the other for jumping and kicking. The graphics are extremely simple, 2D color graphics. The maximum number of players is two, alternating turns.
The player assumes the role of Agent 17, codename: "Otto", a secret agent for an unspecified organization or government. As Otto, the player must "acquire" (steal) a series of secret documents from a tall building which Otto enters from the roof. Each room with a document is indicated by a red door. Otto must traverse the building's numerous levels via a series of elevators and escalators while acquiring the documents. After retrieving all the documents, Otto must escape via the getaway car in the basement of the building and thus progress to the next level of the game. Otto's mobility consists of movement left or right, jumping, and dropping to a knee, however, dropping to a knee is not possible while in control of an elevator due to the need to control the elevator's up and down movement. At the escalators near the middle of the building, up and down naturally commands Otto to go up or down the escalators.
In order to defend against the enemy agents, Otto can either shoot them, with a maximum of three rounds per volley, or if close enough jump towards them and make contact as in kicking them. When defeated, enemy agents will collapse and then disappear. It is also possible to avoid enemy fire by either jumping over the bullets or dropping to a knee.
As the player progresses through more levels, the enemy agents will begin to shoot more frequently, their bullets will travel more quickly, and they will begin to take evasive action to avoid being shot, either going down to a knee to avoid high bullets or dropping into a prone position to avoid bullets at a lower level, however, they are unable to jump to avoid being hit. They can fire from any position, but are only able to fire one shot at a time, the interval between them shortening as the game goes on.
While there is no visible timer, the player does not have unlimited time with which to complete each round. At some point, the game appears to enter into a hurry-up mode, as evidenced by the background tune changing to something with a quicker beat, giving the impression of time running out. The enemy agents become more aggressive, as if the game were being played at an even higher level. The last characteristic of this mode is that the elevator response to commands deteriorates somewhat; an up or down command is likely to experience a small bit of lag, making it difficult to get or keep the elevator moving to avoid enemy fire, which can be problematic, especially toward the bottom level.
An extra life is earned when player reaches 10,000 points.
The Killer List of Videogames includes this game in its list of "Top 100 Video Games".
The title of the dojin game ElePaper Action is a parody of Elevator Action's title. The game's credits sequence features a mini-game similar to Elevator Action.
Two games for Palm OS, Agent Z and its sequel, Agent Z 2 by Ellams Software, are based on Elevator Action.
Dexter's Laboratory: Robot Rampage! released for Gameboy Color in 2000, is based on Elevator Action II.
In 2007, 505 Games released a game similar to Elevator Action for the Wii. The North American release is called Spy Games: Elevator Mission. It is called Elevator Combat for the European release.
A port to the original Game Boy included the ability to acquire different weapons, such as a machine gun that fired more rapidly.
On March 5, 2007, the NES port of Elevator Action was released on the Wii's Virtual Console.
Revealed at AOU 2009, Elevator Action: Death Parade is a lightgun shooter that uses elevator doors when changing scenarios.[1]
Some of the chapters in the Hellsing manga are named Elevator Action.
The "Nintendo punk" band 14 Year Old Girls did a song about this game; the song is also called "Elevator Action".
Like many games of this era, Elevator Action was ported to some home systems in 1985 for personal use. It was ported to the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Commodore 64, Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy.
A port was planned for the Atari 2600, but never released. However, a prototype of the game was illegally published by CGE Services Corp. and sold in Classic Gaming Expo 2001.[2] There are some issues with collision detection, and the game is only 95% complete, leading many to speculate that the video game crash of 1983 was a key factor in its non-release.
Sony published a mobile version of the game.
A remake of the game by Square Enix, titled Elevator Action Deluxe, was released on PlayStation Network on August 31, 2011. The game contains single player and multiplayer modes, as well as the original arcade version.[3]
The original Elevator Action has been included in various compilations, including:
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