Phoenix (1980 video game)

Phoenix
Developer(s)	Amstar
Publisher(s)	Centuri, Taito
Platform(s)	Arcade, Atari 2600
Release	1980
Genre(s)	Shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns

Phoenix is a popular shoot 'em up arcade game created and manufactured by Amstar Electronics (which was located in Phoenix, Arizona) in 1980, and licensed to Centuri for US distribution, and to Taito for Japanese distribution.

Description

Like many arcade games of that era, Phoenix is an outer space-themed fixed shooter. Gameplay is somewhat predictable: each level has two types of alien birds that fire at your ship, and a mothership that is guarded by many of the same alien birds.

The spaceship moves horizontally at the bottom of the screen. In addition to the missiles, the ship is equipped with a shield that can be used to zap any of the alien creatures that attempt to crash into the spaceship. However, the player cannot move while the shield is active, and must wait for a short period (approximately five seconds) before using it again.

Phoenix was one of the first full color arcade games, along with Galaxian, so at the time it stood out. Also, it has distinctive shooting sounds that have become very familiar to fans of the genre. Most importantly, the Phoenix mothership was the first video arcade game boss where the boss was presented as a separate challenge.

Gameplay

Each level has five separate rounds. The player must successfully complete a round before advancing to the next one.

• Rounds 1 and 2 – The player must destroy a formation of alien birds. While in formation, some of the birds fly down kamikaze style, in an attempt to destroy the player's spaceship by crashing into it or firing at it. Hitting a bird flying diagonally awarded a bonus score (200 points), but hitting three of them in a row, generates a score of about 204,500 points. If the score is lower, it will jump to about this number, if the score is higher, it will reset it to this value as well. The game provides opportunity to gain additional 100,000 points on certain levels, but with a loss of one life. These points would be only increments to the existing result, there is no resets if the score is higher.

The birds are yellow in round 1, pink in round 2. The player's spaceship is given rapid fire for round 2, where the birds fly somewhat more unpredictably.

• Rounds 3 and 4 – Flying eggs float on the screen and seconds later hatch, revealing larger alien birds, resembling phoenices, which swoop down at the player's spaceship. The only way to fully destroy one of these birds is by hitting it in its belly; shooting one of its wings merely destroys that wing, and if both wings are destroyed, they will regenerate. From time to time the birds could also revert to the egg form for a brief period of time. The birds are blue in round 3, pink in round 4. Once the wings are chopped off, killing the bird may give up to 980 points.

• Round 5 – The player is pitted against the mothership, which is controlled by an alien-like creature sitting in its center. To successfully complete this round, the player must first fire away at the hull and a conveyor belt-type shield to get a clear shot at the alien. Destroying the alien – only one shot is required – ends the level. The mothership fires missiles at the player, moves slowly down towards him and has the alien birds (from rounds 1 and 2) protecting the ship. Defeating all of the birds will produce a new wave. The highest score on a destroyed alien queen is 9200 points. By the destruction of the queen, you complete one cycle of the game.

Once the queen is destroyed, the game starts all over (second cycle), with different formation for the 1. round. The first and the second cycle exchange each other with each successful destruction of the queen. The difficulty does not increase, however the behavior of the birds depends on your movement and firing. Every next cycle queen score elevates for about a 1,000 points, until 9000, then repeats 9 cycles of 9,000 points, and then goes back to 1,000-ish, and on and on.

Music

There are two pieces of music featured in the game:

• Romance de Amor also known as Spanish Romance by an unknown composer.
• Für Elise by Beethoven.

Clones

• Griffon was released by Videotron in 1980.
• Falcon was released by BGV. in 1980.
• Vautour was released by Jeutel in 1980 in France.
• Condor was released by Sidam in 1981.
• Various games titled Phoenix are available for many graphing calculators.

Bootlegs

• Phoenix was released by T.P.N in 1980
• Phoenix was released by IRECSA, G.G.I Corp in 1980

Sequels

The official sequel to Phoenix was called Pleiads (onscreen) or Pleiades (on the Centuri manufactured marquee) and was developed by Tehkan in 1981, and licensed to Centuri for US distribution. Pleiades featured more enemies attacking at once, balanced by the fact that the player could now have an unlimited number of shots on the screen at one time.

The Flagship level in the Midway game Gorf has been compared to the boss stage in Phoenix.

Hardware

Most Phoenix games will be in a standard Centuri woodgrain cabinet, but several other cabinets exist, due to this game being sold by multiple companies at the same time. These use sticker sideart (which covers the upper half of the machine), and glass marquees. The control panel is made up entirely of buttons, no joysticks are present. The monitor in this machine is mounted vertically, and the monitor bezel is relatively unadorned. Phoenix uses a unique wiring harness, which isn't known to be compatible with any other games.

cpu 8085A @ 2.75 MHz
audio TMS36XX @ 0.000372 MHz
audio Custom
audio Discrete @ 0.12 MHz

Records

Mark Gotfraind holds the official record for this game with 987,620 points recorded on the 17th of March 1983 at Cloverleaf Golf N Game / N. Miami Beach, FL Reference: Originally published in the 1987 Twin Galaxies Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records by Walter Day and maintained on-line at [1] and [2]

Ports

Atari later bought the home video game console rights to Phoenix. The Imagic game Demon Attack closely resembled Phoenix, so Atari sued Imagic, who settled out of court. The home version of Phoenix is one of the better arcade ports of the time.

Taito appears to currently hold the worldwide rights to the game - in 2005, Phoenix was released on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PSP and the PC as part of Taito Legends in the US and Europe, and Taito Memories II Gekan in Japan.

External links

• Template:StrategyWiki
• Phoenix at the Killer List of Videogames
• Arcade History Database entry
• Phoenix entry at the Centuri.net Arcade Database
• Java Version (pseudo SFX and too-fast gameplay) (broken applet)
• [3]