Battlezone (1980)

Using wire models on a vector display with a green and red overlay, a battle with opposing tanks, missiles and the occasional saucer is simulated among pyramids and cubes. The 1812 overture plays during high score.

Battlezone had two known prototype names before it was mass produced: Future Tank and Moon Tank. The Battlezone legend says that a military version of the game existed as a training simulator for the Bradley fighting vehicle. The designer, Ed Rotberg did post to RGVA before it became RGVAC that only two cabinets were made. The controller was similar to a Star Wars yoke. The simulator has an option for a TOW Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided missile. This was in keeping with the real Bradley's capabilities. As long as you kept the enemy tank in the cross-hairs of the TOW sight, you could not miss. Also a prototype of a cocktail version was developed, including full glasstop artwork and control panel. Only one is known to exist as it was not released for production. There is no color overlay for the cocktail version since the images needs to flip for the second player. The imagery from the arcade game was used in the intro scene for the PC game version update of the game. The image opens where you see the original graphics on the screen. The image zooms out and you see it is the radar screen on the tank from the PC version of the game.

Shoot Enemy Tanks!

This Battlezone was free! Pulled it out of a basement, completely dead, but complete. It took a lot of work on the vector generator to get this machine going again.