Grobda

Grobda (グロブダー, Gurobudā) is a multi-directional shooter game that was released by Namco on November 1, 1984.^[1] It runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware but with a video system like that used in Mappy and The Tower of Druaga, and it also uses a DAC for the "Get Ready" speech sample at the start of each round. It is a spin-off from Xevious, as the player's tank (which is the eponymous "Grobda") first appeared in that game as an enemy.

Gameplay

Screenshot of the game

The player must take control of Grobda, a screw-propelled tank trapped in an arena filled with numerous indestructible obstacles and several enemy tanks. When an enemy tank is killed, it will cause an explosion, and any other enemies that happen to be in the blast radius at the time will also suffer the same fate. But if Grobda is too close to the explosion, it will also be killed. Grobda has a shield that offers very temporary protection from enemy fire, but this will soon disappear if it is constantly under attack or shot. Each round is called a "battling", and there are a total of ninety-nine in the game. If all ninety-nine battlings are cleared, the game's high score table will show that the player has cleared one hundred battlings, and if the arcade operator has set the game's "round select" DIP switch setting to "on", the player will also have the option of starting the game on any battling he or she wants.

Ports

The game was ported to the Sony PlayStation as part of Namco Museum Volume 2 and Namco Museum Battle Collection, the latter of which includes a more accurate port. It was also ported to the Wii, through the Virtual Console in Japan on November 10, 2009 and through the Namco Museum Megamix compilation in North America on November 16, 2010, the latter of which also includes an updated "Remix" version of the game (similar to the "Arrangements") entitled Grobda Remix.

References

External links

• Grobda at the Killer List of Videogames
• Grobda at the Arcade History database