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Namco, GamePlan

Released by Namco in the summer of 1980, King & Balloon is a shoot em up in the vein of Galaxian, but trades the outer space theme for pseudo-medieval setting. In the game, the player controls two green men who carry a cannon, as they defend the king below them from getting abducted by the balloons above, which keep invading the lower part of the screen while also shooting projectiles. Once all the balloons are shot down, the game moves on to the next level. One thing that makes King & Balloon unique is that you don't lose a life when hit. Rather, you respawn and keep on playing. The only way to lose a life is letting the king get abducted. Another interesting mechanic of note is that the balloons stop attacking and descending when one grabs ahold of the king, and they will keep still until the king is back on the ground. This creates a risk versus reward mechanic and entices you to let the balloon carry the king high enough so you can take out more balloons, then rescuing the king just in time. King & Balloon was also one of the first games to have speech, and it still holds up better than most contemporary or even later examples. The king says "Help!" when abducted, "Thank You!" when rescued, and "Bye bye!" when he leaves the screen. There are actually different voices for the game in Japan and the US version, with the Japan version having a slight Japanese accent.

Game Plan

In this game you play the man-hunting shark for a change and try to kill the divers who are set out to kill you.

Taiyo System, Game Plan

Space shooter

Game Plan

The player has to climb a vertical maze which walls are moving back and forth horizontally - all the while evading enemies and collecting coins.

Centuri, Game Plan

In the first part of each wave, space monsters descend from the top of the screen towards your ship, dropping bombs as they go. If they reach the bottom of the screen, they will start hopping towards your spacepod if they catch your spacepod, they'll eat it. In these rounds, your spacepod fires in three directions simultaneously straight up, and 45 degrees to either side. The eight types of monsters shown in the score table attack in the order shown for the first eight waves (i.e. wave 1 is all 100-point monsters, wave 2 is all 200-point monsters, etc.) wave nine is a mass attack of all eight types, and waves ten and up are randomly-chosen from the first nine types. Each space monster round contains a total of 25 monsters, though only eight will be on the screen at any one time. The second half of the wave starts out with a spinning space ring that drifts around the screen, growing in size if you shoot it, it splits into two smaller rings that go off in different directions and start growing again. If any ring reaches sufficient size, it will "tractor-beam" your spacepod into its center (your controls are frozen at this point) and then crush it. In this round, your spacepod only fires straight up the two 45-degree guns are disabled. The rings are worth the same number of points as the monsters in the first half of the waves. MEGATACK has a somewhat confusing way of indicating how many spacepods you have left. The number in the center of each pod is not a remaining lives indicator rather, it is the serial number of each pod, starting at three (or four) and descending towards one. This number does not change if you earn bonus pods rather, all of your bonus pods are numbered "0". Neither does the "x spacepods remaining" message that flashes briefly across the screen at the start of each player/pod's turn accurately reflect bonus pods rather, once you have exhausted your three standard pods, the game will repeatedly announce bonus spacepod and continue playing until you use up however many bonus pods you manage to accumulate.

Konami, Taito, Game Plan

Intruder is an arcade game originally released by Konami as Space War. It is a one-on-one spaceship combat game with each player controlling a ship at the top or bottom of the screen. Between the players is a stream of innocent space ship traffic limiting the possibility of getting a clean shot. When your fuel reaches a high number (like 75 or so) your laser will reach the other side of the screen to get your opponent. Once you fire your laser your fuel drops sharply and you must wait for it to build before you can shoot at your opponent again. Space War is Konami's first known original video game design. It was licensed by Taito, who released it as Space Laser (in Europe), and by Game Plan, who released it as Intruder (in North America).

Centuri, Game Plan