Moon Patrol (TI-99/4A)

Discuss Review + Want + Have Contribute

Description

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 UFO's which fire at the player or bombard the ground (creating pits). Later the player also comes upon stationary tanks which fire missiles (that 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.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "Patrulha Lunar" -- Brazilian title
• "ムーンパトロール" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Genre: Scrolling shoot 'em up
• Moon Patrol variants
• Setting: Earth's Moon

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the TI-99/4A release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

Critic Reviews

There are no critic reviews for this game.

Forums

There are currently no topics for this game.

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 Web Sites

• AtariMania (Atari 2600) (for Atari 2600: database; downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• AtariMania (Atari 5200) (for Atari 5200: database; downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• AtariMania (Atari 8-bit) (for Atari 8-bit: database; downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• AtariMania (Atari ST) (for Atari ST: database; downloadable releases; artwork; additional material)
• Game Base 64 (for C64: Downloadable links, Database, Music, Emulation, Frontends, Reviews and Articles)
• Game Oldies (Nintendo Game Boy Color) (for (Nintendo Game Boy Color): online emulation of games Moon Patrol and Spy Hunter)
• Lemon 64 (for C64: games, reviews and music)
• MSX Generation (for MSX: catalogue; cover art; additional material)
• My Abandonware (for PC Booter and C64: downloadable releases; online versions; additional material)
• The International Arcade Museum (extensive information about the arcade game machine)
• Virtual Apple 2 - Online disk archive (for Apple II: online emulation of game (for Windows and Mac); downloadable releases; additional material)
• Wikipedia (combined platform entry)
• YouTube (John's Arcade Game Reviews & Tech) (for Arcade version: gameplay and detailed explanation on an authentic Arcade. )