Bosconian (ボスコニアン Bosukonian?) is a free-roaming shoot-em-up arcade game released in 1981 by Namco and published in North America by Midway Games. It is one of the first video games to feature diagonal directions and a radar. The game uses Namco Galaga hardware with Rally-X's video system. The game won the 1982 Arcade Award of Best Sci-Fi Coin-Op Game in January 1983, beating Atari's Gravitar and Sega's Zaxxon.[1] It is Namco's first video game with a continue feature.
Gameplay
The player assumes the role of a Star Fighter, that is capable of moving diagonally. The player must shoot down the random number of space stations in each stage, while avoiding enemies, missiles, asteroids and mines. The game displays the radar showing the current stations, the player, and their condition: Green means no enemies, Yellow means that enemies are close by, and Red means that enemies are in range. Asteroids and Cosmo Mines litter the playing field. The only difference with the Cosmo Mines is that they explode when shot. Once in a while, a Spy Ship will appear, and if it's not shot, a arrangement of enemies will swarm the player.
Ports
Bosconian was released for MSX, Sharp X68000, and the Virtual Console for Wii. The game is included in the Namco Museum compilations Namco Museum Vol. 1 (PlayStation), Namco Museum Battle Collection (PlayStation Portable), Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary (PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube), and Namco Museum Virtual Arcade (Xbox 360).
Related Releases
- Blast Off - A sequel released in 1989 exclusively in Japan. However, the gameplay only bears little resemblance to the original.
- Final Blaster - Another sequel released in 1990.
- Star Luster - Released in 1985, this game is set centuries after the Bosconian war.
- Galaga '88 - The debris of the Bosconian enemy base appears in the background.
- Star Ixiom- Sequel to Star Luster
External links
References
- ↑ Electronic Games (January 1983) page 36