Description
Commonly considered the earliest progenitor of first-person shooters (FPS),
Battlezone is a 3D tank game initially released in the arcades, and later converted officially to many systems. Earth has been invaded, and you and your tank lead the defensive effort. You drive around the battlefield from a first-person view, targeting and firing at tanks, planes and UFOs. You have a radar to help you see where the enemies are in direction and distance. Objects can be used as strategic cover. Controls simulate the tracks of a tank realistically, so the direction and speed settings are varied - combining forward right and backward left movements (as you can on keyboard versions) sees you change direction more quickly.
Part of the Following Group
User Reviews
The Press Says
There are no rankings for this game.
Forums
Trivia
Arcade version
Development of the original
Battlezone coin-op was a team effort:
Morgan Hoff was the project leader;
Jed Margolin handled electrical engineering;
Ed Rotberg programmed it;
Roger Hector modelled all 3D objects as minimally as possible, and
Howie Delman's vector-graphics generator was used.
References to the game
Battlezone units appear in the movies:
- Tron (1982)
- Joysticks (1983))
- The Philadelphia Experiment (1984))
- Running Scared (1986))
Volcano
Owen Rubin kept pestering Rotberg to make the volcano on the horizon active; Rotberg brushed him off, challenging Rubin to write the code for the volcano himself if he felt so strongly about it. The next morning, there it was sitting on his desk.
Awards
- Retro Gamer
- Issue 46 - #20 in the "Top 25 Atari 2600 Games" poll
Information also contributed by
Nélio and
PCGamer77.