Lunar Rescue hit the arcades in 1979. It's a little bit Lunar Lander and a little bit Defender before there was a Defender. You pilot a spaceship that exits a mother ship and must navigate down to the surface of the moon and safely land the craft on plateaus. You'll pick up a stranded spaceman who you then need to get back up to the mother ship. On the way down you'll have to avoid asteroids that are moving to the left and right across the screen. On the way up you'll need to avoid hostile aliens that are again moving to the left and right across the screen. You only have thrust to slow your descent while you're able to move left and right. On the way up you have thrust to speed your ascent while moving left and right and at the same time you can fire up at the alien ships in your way. The thrust and fire button are one in the same. The game is very archaic. It can display roughly five colors at once and contains no music and only minimal sound effects. This one truly represents the start of the industry.
We move ahead to 1980 with Balloon Bomber but we remain pretty archaic. Again we're roughly limited to five colors on screen at once. You have to shoot the bombs that are being dropped by a biplane flying over. He's dropping them attached to balloons. They move left and right across the screen. You control an antiaircraft tank that moves left and right across the bottom of the screen. You'll want to shoot the bombs themselves. If you miss the bomb and hit the balloon the bomb falls to the ground. You can attempt to shoot the bomb itself as it drops but that's much harder done than said. If the bombs hit your tank you're dead. If they hit the ground they leave craters that you can't pass. So a couple of missed bombs could very well have you trapped in a section of the screen trying to make sure you hit the bombs and not the balloons holding them. There is actually some cool strategy to this one.
We're still in 1980 and we're still well within the archaic with Crazy Balloon. Again we have the most minimal of sound and the ability to only display about five colors on screenat once. You need to move a balloon through a maze of thorns. You obviously can't come into contact with the thorns or you'll balloon will pop. This game is really freaking hard. The balloon sways back and forth. So you're moving a moving object through said maze of thorns with only a pixel's breath worth of space to get through in some instances. You only have the joystick to move the balloon and the control in the this version of the game is rather touchy making it even more difficult then it already is.
We move ahead one year into 1981 with Qix. You control a small diamond shaped marker with the joystick. You have two buttons, one for fast, and one for slow. They both draw a line as you move the marker. The object of the game is to draw in seventy-five percent of the playfield. You get more points for drawing slow than you do for drawing fast. Why the need for the two speeds? Because you're not alone on the playfield. As you're drawing lines that fill in when you connect and to other lines and close off a section there is the titular Qix moving about the playfield. The Qix is a wholly unpredictable mass of energy. It will continually change its course. You can't let your unfinished lines come into contact with the Qix. It's actually difficult to think beyond avoiding damage with the marker. You're not used to having to consider the line being drawn. Also on the play field are two moving Sparks that can only travel along the lines. This game is hard as hell but entirely awesome. It's one of the most original games ever produced.
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