Moon Patrol

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Moon Patrol Game History

Moon Patrol was the first game to implement a technique known as “parallax scrolling.” Parallax scrolling is basically a graphical technique whereby the background images move slower then foreground images, which creates the illusion of depth within a 2D environment.

The action takes place in the fictional city of Lunar City. The gamer takes the role of a police officer assigned to Sector Nine, the home of the most brutal thugs in the whole galaxy.

The game which is a classic 2 player, side scrolling shoot 'em up, was first released in 1982. Developed by Irem and published by Williams Electronics for the North American market.

The object of the game is to guide a moon buggy across rough lunar terrain avoiding obstacles such as mines and craters. While jumping over these hazards, the buggy will come under attack from UFOs and tanks. Placed at the top of the screen, is a map of your current course. Three lights are also present which indicate the various position of enemy attacks.

The top light indicates aerial attack from UFOs.The middle light indicates a minefield that has to be negotiated. The bottom light indicates enemy attacks from behind the buggy.

Situated just below the lights is the checkpoint indicator. There are five different checkpoints per level, and these labelled; E, J, O, T and Z. Since it's original release in the arcades, other conversions to the home computer and console markets have been made, including;
Atari 800
Atari 2600
Atari 5600
Commodore 64
Commodore VIC-20
Nintendo Game Boy
Sony PlayStation
Sega Dreamcast

A mobile phone version is now also available. A version was also planned for the ZX Spectrum, but unfortunately was never released.

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