Retro Game Wiki
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Astrofighter

Astro Fighter scoring table

Astro Fighter was an arcade game released by Sega/Gremlin in 1980. Players faced a multitude of enemies that all behaved differently, making the game fairly unique when it was released. Enemy ships would start out at the top of the screen and make their way downwards; if a player allowed one or more ships to slip past them, they would have to start the wave over, but with their ship bumped up a notch on the screen, having less time to react to enemies’ attacks, as well as wasting fuel in the process.

Along with enemy ships moving in certain patterns, they also fired diagonal and vertical shots at the player. Comets would also appear throughout the game, traveling straight down the screen, from top to bottom. Being hit by anything would destroy the player’s ship, and the game would end once there were no reserve ships remaining or if the player ran out of fuel, as their fuel was constantly depleting.

Enemy ship waves/behavior[]

The first wave of enemies the player faces are blue ships that stay in a small formation, moving from side to side, then occasionally dropping down a notch. The second wave of ships are purple, which behave in pretty much the same manner, although their formation covers a much wider area, spanning across almost the entire width of the screen.

The green ships afterwards (which somewhat resemble T. I. E. Fighters from the Star Wars movies) fly at a diagonal, reverse direction, then fly at a diagonal again, and the final round of yellow ships only occupy a few vertical rows that move straight down without stopping.

At the very end of each level is a large GS ship, which is positioned at the top of the screen and moves from side to side. If destroyed, would refill the player’s fuel tank, then the game would start over with the first set of blue enemy ships again.

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