Moon Patrol

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: ****

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
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.