Mad Planets

Mad Planets is a 1983 arcade shooter from Gottlieb in which the player fends off angry planets and moons attacking from all directions. The game was designed and programmed by Kan Yabumoto,^[1][3] with art by Jeff Lee and sound by David D. Thiel.^[1] Lee and Thiel previously worked on Q*bert for Gottlieb.^[4] Mad Planets was not officially ported to any home systems.

Gameplay

The player uses a flight-style joystick to move a spaceship around a dark starfield, a rotary knob to orient it, and a trigger on the stick to fire.^[5] Planets appear at the start of a level and begin growing. They can be destroyed prior to reaching full size and sprouting moons. Once a planet has moons, it's shielded until all its moons have been launched at the player's ship.^[6] A planet that has lost all of its moons becomes angry and charges the player.^[7]

Floating astronauts appear in mini bonus rounds after every third level, then every fourth after level twelve.^[8] They can be collected by flying over them. Orbiting comets pick up speed the longer they go without being shot. Comets increase in value by 100 points, to a maximum of 1000, until a comet leaves the screen or the level ends.^[8]

If a wave is completed by destroying all planets before they reach full size, a substantial bonus is awarded.^[9]

Reception

Writing for Creative Computing Video & Arcade Games, Steve Arrants chose Mad Planets as one of the top ten games of the 1983 American Amusement Operators Expo. He praised the "beautiful graphics," "extremely responsive" controls, and concluded "I would rank Mad Planets right up there with other high-tension favorites such as Robotron and Tempest."^[5]

Clones

Martech published two clones for home computers: Crazy Comets and its sequel Mega Apocalypse.^[10] Crazy Comets even uses the same title screen logo as Mad Planets, but with "Crazy" replacing "Mad" and "Comets" replacing "Planets."

References