| Tubeway | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Datamost |
| Publisher(s) | Datamost |
| Programmer(s) | David Arthur Van Brink [1] |
| Platform(s) | Apple II |
| Release | 1982 |
| Genre(s) | Fixed shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Tubeway (also known as Tubeway ][) is game for the Apple II programmed by David Arthur Van Brink and published by Datamost in 1983. [1] It is similar to the 1981 Atari arcade game Tempest .
Tubeway is a tube shooter in which the player uses paddles to move a small white crosshair around the top of a "tube" or wall while firing down at the computer-controlled opponents attempting to scale their way up it. The opponents, known as the Tubeway Army (one of several references to Gary Numan in the game),[ citation needed ] consist of triangular green homers (100 points) and triangular blue seekers (200 points), both of which can return fire. A special opponent called the germ occasionally emerges from a white box in the lower left corner of the screen. The goal of the game is to clear as many levels as possible before running out of lives. An extra life is granted every 20,000 points.
In an 8 out of 10 review, the January 1983 Arcade Express newsletter mentioned the similarity to Tempest, but called it "just different enough to stand as an independent program within the same gaming genre." [2]
In 1984, Softline readers named Tubeway the sixth-worst Apple program of 1983. [3]
Jeff Minter is an independent English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games for the Sinclair ZX80. Minter's games are often arcade style shoot 'em ups which contain titular or in-game references demonstrating his fondness of ruminants. Many of his programs also feature something of a psychedelic element, as in some of the earliest "light synthesizer" programs including Trip-a-Tron.
Archon: The Light and the Dark is a 1983 video game developed by Free Fall Associates and one of the first five games published by Electronic Arts. It is superficially similar to chess, in that it takes place on a board with alternating black and white squares; however, instead of fixed rules when landing on another player's piece, an arcade-style fight takes place to determine the victor, and each piece has different combat abilities. The health of the player's piece is enhanced when landing on a square of one's own color.
Zaxxon is an isometric shooter arcade game, developed and released by Sega in 1982, in which the player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki is also credited for having worked on the development of the game.
Missile Command is a 1980 shoot 'em up arcade video game developed and published by Atari, Inc. and licensed to Sega for Japanese and European releases. It was designed by Dave Theurer, who also designed Atari's vector graphics game Tempest from the same year. Released during the Cold War, the player uses a trackball to defend six cities from intercontinental ballistic missiles by launching anti-ballistic missiles from three bases.
Centipede is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Atari, Inc. Designed by Dona Bailey and Ed Logg, it was one of the most commercially successful games from the golden age of arcade video games and one of the first with a significant female player base. The primary objective is to shoot all the segments of a centipede that winds down the playing field. An arcade sequel, Millipede, followed in 1982.
Frogger is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and manufactured by Sega. In North America, it was released by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct a series of frogs to their homes by crossing a busy road and a hazardous river.
Lode Runner is a 2D puzzle-platform game, developed by Douglas E. Smith and published by Broderbund in 1983. Its game-play mechanics are similar to Space Panic from 1980. The player controls a character who must collect all the gold pieces in a level and get to the end while being chased by a number of enemies. It is one of the first games to include a level editor.
Tempest is a 1981 arcade game by Atari Inc., designed and programmed by Dave Theurer. It takes place on a three-dimensional surface divided into lanes, sometimes as a closed tube, and viewed from one end. The player controls a claw-shaped "blaster" that sits on the edge of the surface, snapping from segment to segment as a rotary knob is turned.
Tag Team Wrestling, known as The Big Pro Wrestling! in Japan, is a wrestling video game developed by Technōs Japan and released for arcades in 1983. The arcade version was published by Data East both in Japan and North America, but only the North American version mentions the name of Data East in-game. It was later ported in the mid-1980s to computers and the Famicom/NES.
In Search of the Most Amazing Thing is a video game designed by Tom Snyder Productions and published by Spinnaker Software in 1983. Although marketed as a children's game, it drew acclaim from players of all ages for its original concept and imaginative game world.
Hard Hat Mack is a platform game developed by Michael Abbot and Matthew Alexander for the Apple II which was published by Electronic Arts in 1983. Ports for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64 were released simultaneously. It is part of the first batch of five games from Electronic Arts, and the company calls it out as "truly EA's first game." Versions for the Amstrad CPC and IBM PC compatibles followed in 1984.
Caverns of Mars is a vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari 8-bit family of home computers. It was programmed by Greg Christensen, with some features added by Richard Watts, and published by the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981. Caverns of Mars became the best selling APX title of all-time and was moved into Atari, Inc.'s official product line, first on diskette and later on cartridge.
Starcade is a game show where contestants competed against one another by playing arcade video games. The series originally aired on WTBS from 1982 to 1983, followed by a run in syndication for the following season.
Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator is a space combat simulation arcade game based on the original Star Trek television program and movie series, and released by Sega in 1983. Star Trek uses color vector graphics for both a 2D display and a 3D first-person perspective. The player controls the Starship Enterprise and must defend sectors from invading Klingon ships. The game includes synthesized speech
Crossfire is a multidirectional shooter created by Jay Sullivan for the Apple II and published by On-Line Systems in 1981. It was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, VIC-20, Commodore 64, and IBM PC. The Atari 8-bit release had a separate cartridge and magnetic media release; the cartridge version ran on a 16k machine and used character mode graphics while the magnetic media version largely duplicated the graphics from the Apple II and ran in hi-res bitmap mode, needing 32k of memory to run. The C64 release had background music which is absent from other versions. A cartridge version of Crossfire was a 1984 launch title for the IBM PCjr, announced in late 1983.
Nasir Gebelli is an Iranian-American programmer and video game designer usually credited in his games as simply Nasir. Gebelli wrote Apple II games for Sirius Software, created his own company Gebelli Software, and worked for Squaresoft. He became known in the early 1980s for producing fast action games for the Apple II, including 3D shooters.
Sneakers is a fixed shooter video game for the Apple II written by Mark Turmell and published by Sirius Software in 1981. An Atari 8-bit family version was released the same year. Sneakers was Turmell's first published game. He later was the lead designer and programmer of 1993's NBA Jam.
Major Havoc is an arcade action game released by Atari, Inc. in 1983. A vector-based upright arcade cabinet, Major Havoc consists of several smaller game experiences played in succession, including a fixed shooter, platform game, and a lunar lander sequence. It was developed by Owen Rubin with some levels designed and tuned by Mark Cerny, who joined the development team approximately a year into the game's development.
Axis Assassin is a video game written by John Field for the Apple II and published by Electronic Arts in 1983. Ports for the Atari 8-bit family and Commodore 64 were released alongside the Apple II original. The game is similar in concept and visuals to Atari, Inc.'s 1981 Tempest arcade game.