Moon Patrol

The Good
How old was I when I played this game...just a kid and totally trigger happy. Played this ol'game on my 1.7 Mhz PC XT.

Moon Patrol was "The Action" game. You had a lot of shooters back then, but this particular one was a whole lot better from a "boyish" point of view. Your in space, you got yourself some totally neat wheels, and your blasting everything that comes in your way. Did I mention neat wheels?

Another thing that was kind of surprising is that you can shoot forward as well as up. In addition to dodging holes and rocks, of which you have to jump your moon buggy...things can get pretty messy out there when its crowded.

The Bad
Somethings things can get a little TOO messy. The fact that when your jumping around, you can't dodge bullets means restart game. And sometimes there is a minimal margin of error when your jumping those holes and rocks (of which your doing while also dodging bullets from front and above). Sometimes it can be frustrating when your a kid...then again I'm surprised that I had a lot of patience back then.

Other minor details...no power ups (did they have power ups back then?) so the game is practically the same from the beginning to the end (if there is an end), just more shooting and jumping. No bosses, no unique enemies, no much else come to think of it. Oh well, it was good enough for me back then.

Oh, what was the plot about again?

The Bottom Line
I gotta get me one of these!

The Good
I never actually owned an apple computer, but a girl who lived down the street from me fortunately did. The only other game she owned was strip poker, (a beguiling thought) and my poker skills as an 8 y.o. old were rather poor (Getting the woman to remove their winter coats was the height of excitement! ) - so it was moon patrol by default.

Well, what better game to have than moon patrol. We must have played this for an entire summer. The game play is quite wonderful, very simple: Go right shoot and jump things...Keep moving and try not to die. In end you're going right just for the sheer pleasure of driving that buggy across the screen and trying to beat your last score.
Now tell me: Isn't that what gaming is all about? Who isn't captivated by the notion of driving a car around on the moon?

The Bad
Sure, the aesthetics, are well, simple. And the game is built around repetition. But what game wasn't back then? The fact you can play this game for extended periods of time before finding it monotonous is testament to it's addictiveness and fun.

The Bottom Line
An arcade-style humdinger of moon patrolling.

The Good
Damn, I was about to add this one :-)

Well, Moon Patrol is an arcade classic I know well and love equally well. I used to play this thing on XTs when I was 6 or so, and play it to this very day on XTs. It's got good controls, good graphics, a catchy tune and an excellent theme. It's quite challenging, and mostly fun!

The Bad
It's kind of repetitive, but what'd you expect from an early game?

The Bottom Line
A real classic you have to play to fully appreciate.

The Good
Moon Patrol was released in the arcades back in 1982. It was created by Takashi Nishiyama, who also did Kung-Fu Master. It is just another one of those games that you couldn't stop playing. Like other games that were released around the same time, there is no real plot involved.

As a Lunar City police officer assigned to Sector Nine, your job is to guide a buggy across the moon’s surface, shooting UFOs and aliens above you while avoiding any obstacles that are on your path. The buggy has the ability to shoot at objects, jump, reverse, speed up, and slow down. In the “Beginner Course”, there are 26 checkpoints you pass through, and each stage introduces new obstacles and alternating backgrounds. Once you have passed all checkpoints, you proceed to the “Champion Course” in which things will be a little bit harder.

The interface is laid out nicely, especially the progress bar on the right representing what checkpoint you are approaching. The traffic lights on the right warn you what type of enemy is approaching you. Moon Patrol was one of the first games to feature parallax scrolling, where the backgrounds move with the player. Of these backgrounds, the Lunar City looks good. The animations are excellent, and when you get killed by aliens or when you fall into a hole, the explosion of the buggy is brilliant.

Moon Patrol plays a memorable tune while you play, but there are different pieces of music, with the most heard one played when you manage to pass five checkpoints. Sound-wise, a wavy pattern can be heard when enemies hover above you. I like the sound effect when you kill these enemies.

The Bad
Nothing is bad about this game

The Bottom Line
Moon Patrol was not only one of the first arcade game to feature gorgeous graphics and parallax scrolling, but it was also the first to offer a continue option, making it an incentive for players to have that "just one more go" attitude. The object of the game is simple: drive a buggy along the moon's surface to get to all 26 checkpoints, blasting aliens in the process. Classic stuff.

The Good
I first played Moon Patrol on CCS64, possibly the best C64 emulator on the internet. It is just another one of those games that you couldn't stop playing, and once you ran out of lives, you just had to play it again and again. But then again, you'd expect this when anyone played a game from the early 80s. Like other early 80s games, there is no real plot involved.

Gameplay: You control a little buggy who moves along the surface of the moon, and must pass through checkpoints that are labeled A-Z in that order. You must also watch out for UFOs and aliens above you who will shoot at you. As well as these, you need to keep a close eye on what is ahead of you, since other dangers such as robots, rocks, land mines, and other vehicles lie along the path. There are holes in the ground, which you must jump over.

Rather than just going along the track horizontally, there are times that you find yourself traveling either up-hill or down-hill, shooting tumbling boulders that approach you, and you can even shoot these. If you don't shoot the dangers above, they will also come toward you and shoot more holes in the ground. Falling down those holes or getting killed by the aliens will result in you losing a life. If you manage to pass every fifth checkpoint (located at the top of the screen) without losing a life, you will receive a bonus if you beat the game's average time.

There are two game modes that you can play on. Normally, people who are playing the game for the first time select the "Beginner" mode. If they previously played the game and want more of a challenge, then they select the "Champion" mode. Both these modes can be selected from the game's menu.

Moon Patrol is one of the first games to introduce a continue option, meaning that once you lose all of your lives, the game gives you ten seconds to feed it quarters or the game ends. Fortunately for all you players at home, all you need to do is push a button on your keyboard. There is no limit on how much times you can continue.

Graphics: The graphics are good. The foreground consists of your buggy and the pink track that you are driving along, as well as the different types of dangers. The background mainly consist of both green and gray mountains with white caps on them. Moon Patrol is the first game ever to feature parallax scrolling, meaning that the background moved at a different rate than the foreground.

Music & Sound: While you are playing the game, the original Moon Patrol theme can be heard. A different music piece can also be heard once you pass one of the checkpoints listed at the top of the screen. There are explosion sounds when your vehicle has crashed, and you hear a nice little beep whenever you pass one of those checkpoints.

The Bad
Repetitive, just like the way that every 80s games are.

The Bottom Line
Post-1996, we have seen so many classics being updated with gorgeous 3D graphics and advanced features that are released from the very same companies. But I question why there hasn't there been an update of Moon Patrol.

Rating: ****