Gorf
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Gorf is an arcade game, released in 1981 by Midway Games. It is a multiple-mission fixed shooter.
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Gorftitlescreen.png Gorf title screen Gorf is essentially five games in one. The player controls a slow-moving spaceship which can move left and right, and to a limited extent up and down. The spaceship is armed with a single upward-firing weapon. The player must play through a series of missions. There are five different missions, and if all five are completed the game loops back to the first mission again, with the difficulty level increased. The game continues until the player loses all their lives. |
Missions
Mission 1: Astro BattlesThe first mission is more or less a straight clone of Space Invaders, set against a sky-blue background. The player is protected by a glittering parabolic forcefield, which is gradually worn away by enemy projectiles. The forcefield apparently works in both directions, and therefore it must momentarily deactivate in order for the player's ship to fire out. To advance to the next mission, the player must destroy all the invaders. |
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Mission 2: Laser AttackThe rest of the missions take place in space. In this mission, the player is faced with two formations of five enemies each. The formations are cross-shaped, and at the bottom of each formation is a single laser gun. The laser guns fire a long, dangerous yellow beam at regular intervals. At the same time, the other enemies may break formation and attempt to divebomb the player. Destroying a laser gun causes the corresponding formation to break apart. To advance to the next mission, the player must destroy all the enemies. |
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Gorfmission2.png Mission 2: Laser Attack |
Mission 3: GalaxiansThis mission is a clone of Galaxian. The player is faced with a swarm of galaxians, which continually divebomb and shower the player with deadly projectiles. To advance to the next mission, the player must destroy all the galaxians. |
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Mission 4: Space WarpA wormhole of some kind is situated in the middle of the screen. Enemies emerge from it one-at-a-time, and spiral outward at increasing speed, whilst growing larger and flinging fireballs at the player. To advance to the next mission, the player must survive a number of these enemies. |
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Gorfmission4.png Mission 4: Space Warp |
Mission 5: Flag ShipThe final mission is a one-on-one confrontation with the Flag Ship. The Flag Ship could be considered one of the earliest bosses in mainstream computer games. It is equipped with its own forcefield, which the player must blast through to get a clean shot on the ship. It is also armed with a powerful fireball weapon. The player's weapon has a minor effect on the Flag Ship's hull, and can only blast off tiny pieces of it. This adds to the player's problems, as stray pieces of hull can destroy their ship. These pieces can be destroyed with a single shot. The only way to destroy the Flag Ship is to hit the glowing reactor at the heart of the ship, either by first blasting away the hull to expose it, or by managing to fire a shot directly into the tiny vent that leads to the reactor. |
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Ports
Like many games of the era, Gorf was ported to many home systems of the time. Gorf was ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Commodore 64 Commodore VIC-20 and ColecoVision in 1982. Due to licensing issues, however, the Galaxian-like third mission was removed.
External links
- The KLOV entry on Gorf (http://www.klov.com/game_detail.php?letter=G&game_id=7983)
- The MobyGames' entry on the home versions of Gorf (http://www.mobygames.com/game/sheet/gameId,10212/)