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Moon Patrol

aka: Arcade Archives: Moon Patrol, Patrulha Lunar

Description official descriptions

Moon Patrol is a side-scrolling game where the player must drive a moon buggy from one station on the Moon to another, all while avoiding crashing or getting destroyed by alien ships. The vehicle is constantly moving right and the player can speed up or slow down, jump, and shoot (simultaneously firing upwards and forwards.) There are 25 checkpoints along the way, each symbolized with a letter from A to Z and serving as a respawn point. Every five checkpoints mark a separate "stage" within the entire course; reaching the end of a stage under the par time grants a large score bonus.

Dangers on the Moon include rocks (small and big ones) which can be shot to pieces or jumped over, pits which must be jumped, and UFOs which fire at the player or bombard the ground (creating pits). Later the player also comes upon stationary tanks which fire missiles (which can be destroyed with the player's own shots), landmines, carnivorous plants that pop up out of pits, and rocket cars which stalk the buggy from behind before rushing forward in an attempt to ram it down.

After completing the first course (the "Beginner Course") the player can try his skill on the harder Champion Course.

Spellings

  • アーケードアーカイブス ムーンパトロール - Japanese PS4 / Switch spelling
  • ムーンパトロール - Japanese spelling

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Credits (Arcade version)

Lead Designer (uncredited)
Music and Sound Effects (uncredited)

Reviews

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of Moon Patrol appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Cancelled Spectrum version

In one of the stranger moments in Sinclair Spectrum history, a version of this game was completed but never released, despite a great review from Crash! magazine. A handful of copies exist, but never reached a shop floor.

Innovation

According to the 2007 documentary Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade, Irem's 1982 arcade version of Moon Patrol (distributed in North America by Williams) was the first arcade game to allow gameplay continuation with score retention by inserting another coin. Thus, for the first time, one's high score wasn't solely a matter of how far a player could get on a single coin, but rather a function of how many quarters they wanted to sink into the machine.Furthermore, the game is credited with introducing parallax background scrolling to video games to imply depth.

Awards

  • TeleMatch
    • Issue 04/1984 – #3 Arcade Game of the Year 1983 (Readers' Vote)

Related Games

Lunar Rover Patrol
Released 1983 on Dragon 32/64, TRS-80 CoCo
Lost Patrol
Released 1989 on Amiga, 1990 on Atari ST, 1991 on DOS
Moon Cresta
Released 1985 on Commodore 64, 1985 on ZX Spectrum, 2002 on PlayStation...
Highway Patrol II
Released 1989 on Atari ST, DOS, Amiga
Falcon Patrol II
Released 1984 on Commodore 64, 1985 on ZX Spectrum
Lander
Released 1977 on Commodore PET/CBM
KIM Goes to the Moon
Released 1977 on KIM-1
PAW Patrol: On a Roll!
Released 2018 on Nintendo Switch, Windows, Blacknut...
Moon Buggy
Released 1983 on Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, 1985 on Amstrad CPC

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 575

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

TI-99/4A added by Corn Popper. Atari 2600, Commodore 64 added by PCGamer77. PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch added by Rik Hideto. BREW added by Kabushi. Atari 8-bit added by Martin Smith. Atari 5200, Apple II, VIC-20 added by Servo. Sord M5 added by Игги Друге. MSX added by koffiepad. Atari ST added by Belboz. Arcade added by rcoltrane.

Additional contributors: Martin Smith, Pseudo_Intellectual, Игги Друге, Patrick Bregger, Rik Hideto, FatherJack, ZeTomes.

Last modified February 22nd, 2023.