Released in 1981, Gorf by Midway Electronics represented at the time a pinnacle
in video gaming, featuring multiple missions, a pistol grip controller,
and electronic speech. Gorf was released in upright, cabaret, and cocktail
cabinets.
Gameplay
Gameplay consisted of five missions:
Once you destroyed the enemy flag ship, you advanced in rank and started the
five missions over, the tasks growing more and more difficult as you
advanced in rank. Starting out as a lowly Space Cadet, you advanced from
there to Space Captain, then to Space Colonel, Space General, Space
Warrior, and finally to Space Avenger.
Your arsenal of ships came equipped with a Quark Laser. Though you
could only have one shot on the screen at a time, you could cancel a
poorly aimed shot immediately with a new shot simply by firing again. This
had the added benefit of becoming an excellent impromptu forward defense
against diving ships when fired rapidly.
Technical Information
The upright cabinet features an Electrohome 19" Color Dual Sync Horizontal
Monitor or Wells-Gardner 19" Color Dual Sync Horizontal Monitor. It also
features a lit pistol grip control stick with trigger fire button. The game
itself has six PCBs which comprise its motherboard. From left to right
(from side of PCB rack support with the small boards on the left) they are:
(2) RAM boards, the CPU board, the Pattern Transfer board, the Programmed
ROM/RAM board, and the Game Logic board.
Switch Settings
The DIP switch block is located on the Game Logic board. The
switches have the following effects:
Left Coin Slot and Base Adjustments
Switch 1 | Switch 5 | Switch 5 |
OFF | OFF | ON |
1 Coin, 1 Player | 2 Bases | 3 Bases |
2 Coins, 1 Player | 4 Bases | 6 Bases |
2 Coins, 2 Players | 2 Bases Each | 3 Bases Each |
4 Coins, 2 Players | 4 Bases Each | 6 Bases Each |
| | |
ON | | |
2 Coins, 1 Player | 2 Bases | 3 Bases |
4 Coins, 1 Player | 4 Bases | 6 Bases |
4 Coins, 2 Players | 2 Bases Each | 3 Bases Each |
8 Coins, 2 Players | 4 Bases Each | 6 Bases Each |
(For Right Coin Slot and Base Adjustment Settings, substitute Switch 3 for
Switch 1 in the above chart)
Switch 2 - Not Used
Switch 4 -
- Off - English Language
- On - Foreign Language (Manual says that this requires Part# A082-91374-A000)
Switch 6 -
- Off - Bonus Base awarded after Mission 5
- On - No Bonus Base awarded
Switch 7 -
- Off - Coin Play
- On - Free Play
Switch 8 -
- Off - Game attract mode sounds operate during game over
- On - Game attract mode sounds do not operate during game over
Other Things of Interest
[At Left] Space Avenger Tipsie T. Cat takes a well deserved rest after
kicking some serious Gorfian butt!
Gorf has been so popular that it was translated to many home video game
systems and computers including the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, Commodore
Vic-20 and Commodore 64. One interesting thing about these ports was that
they all had four missions instead of five. Due to licensing problems the
Galaxians mission was removed from all ports to home systems.
During the attract modes and gameplay, Gorf says a number of humorous things.
Here are a few:
- "Try again! I devour coins!"
- "Ha ha ha ha!" (How's that? A machine heckling YOU!)
- "Prepare for annihilation!"
- "All hail the supreme Gorfian Empire!"
And my favorite:
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