Gorf (Midway, 1981)
0Gorf is an arcade video game released in 1981 by Midway Manufacturing, whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It is a fixed shooter with five distinct levels, the first of which is based on Space Invaders and another on Galaxian. The game makes heavy use of synthesized speech for the Gorfian robot which teases the player, powered by the Votrax speech chip.[3] Gorf allows the player to buy two additional lives per quarter before starting the game, for a maximum of seven lives.
The home ports omit the Galaxians stage because the Japanese developer Namco owns the rights to the franchise.
Gorf is a fixed shooter in which the players take control of an unnamed starship from the Interstellar Space Force with a mission to prevent the Gorfian Empire from conquering Earth. The ship is capable of moving freely in all directions around the lower third of the screen under the control of a joystick. This was a departure from older vertically-oriented linear shooters, including Space Invaders and Galaxian, which allowed only horizontal movement of the player's ship controlled by left and right buttons. At the time the joystick input and two-dimensional movement were still unusual enough that contemporary video game guides noted them as distinctive features of Gorf.[4][5]
Gameplay comprises five distinct missions; each mission presents its own distinct playstyle, but the central goal of each is to destroy all enemies. Successfully completing all five missions increases the player's rank, which represents the current difficulty level of the game, which loops back to the first mission. Gameplay continues until the player loses all of their lives.
Before starting a new game, players can buy up to seven additional lives by purchasing more credits; an extra life is also granted after clearing the first five missions. Unlike similar games where the player can only fire their weapon after an existing shot has disappeared from the screen, the ship is equipped with a laser cannon capable of firing a single vertical shot (called a "quark laser") at any time, although doing so causes the previous shot to disappear.
Players can advance through the ranks of Space Cadet, Space Captain, Space Colonel, Space General, Space Warrior and Space Avenger, which increases the speed and difficulty of the game and introduces more enemy patterns. Depending on the version, the player's current rank is displayed via a series of integrated lit panels on the cabinet.
Along the way, a robotic voice heckles and threatens the player, often calling and mocking the player by their current rank. Examples:
"Gorfians take no prisoners".
"I am the Gorfian consciousness/Empire".
"My Gorfian robots are unbeatable".
"Prepare yourself for annihilation".
"Robot warriors, seek and destroy".
"Some galactic defender you are!"
"Survival is impossible".
"You cannot escape the Gorfian robots"
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