Battlezone is an arcade game from Atari released in 1980. It displays a wireframe view (using vector graphics rather than raster graphics) on a horizontal black and white CRT (with green color overlay). Due to its novel gameplay and look, this game was very popular for many years.

Development

The vector technique is similar to the visuals of games such as Asteroids. The game was designed by Ed Rotberg , who also designed the somewhat similar Red Baron . On game also participated Owen R. Rubin who written erupting volcanoe.

A version called Army Battlezone was also designed for use by the US army, for tank gunner targeting training, but only two of them were produced (although the gunner yoke developed was later re-used in the Star Wars game).

Gameplay

The game was set on a plain with flat-line horizon, distant crescent moon, and various geometric solids (in vector outline) like pyramids and blocks. The player viewed the screen, which included an overhead radar view to find and destroy the rather slow tanks, faster moving supertanks, or saucer-shaped UFOs, all with ascending point values. The player could hide behind the solids or maneuver in rapid turns once fired on to buy time with which to fire himself. Three hits by an enemy tank ended the game. Common play in the US could run from 25 cents to a dollar per game, depending on machine setting.

Cabinet

The game cabinet was a standard vertical shape with a novel "periscope" viewfinder which the player used to view the game. The game action could also be viewed from the sides of the viewfinder for spectators to watch.

The controls consisted of two joysticks, each with forward or reverse to move and turn. One joystick contained a button used to fire projectiles at enemy targets.

Legacy

A clone (author unknown) of the game for the IBM PC called "bzone.exe" circulated through the BBS community in the 1980s.

Throughout the 1980s, Battlezone was ported to several home computer systems, including the PC (under DOS), the Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari ST, the Commodore 64, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Atari XEGS and Atari Lynx (within that version is hidden game with fulled polygons).

Activision, the video game publishing giant, released a game for Microsoft Windows inspired and named Battlezone in 1998. Aside from the name, however, the game bears little resemblance to the original arcade game.

The game Tank Hunter on Pogo.com is almost an exact replica of Battlezone, complete with imitation vector graphics. The open source game BZFlag (BattleZone capture Flag) is available on SourceForge, and provides network play and full 3D graphics instead of vector graphics.

See Also

• Battlezone, a 3D remake from 1998 which changed the game from an arcade game to a more complicated tank piloting strategy game.

External links

• The KLOV entry on Battlezone
• A history of the game
• Arcade Games – this article on arcade games names Battlezone as "the first truly interactive 3-D environment"
• Category at ODP

Clones

• Pogo's Tank Hunter (requires Java)
• BZFlag (requires a 3D card)
• Battlezone - 32 hour Java vector version