1.
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
2.
Gyromite (NES)
3.
Lucy -The Eternity She Wished For- (Steam)
4.
Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (Famicom)
5.
Radical Dreamers (SNES)
6.
Video Games 1 (TI-99/4A)
7.
Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (Famicom)
8.
Exile (TurboGrafx CD)
9.
Exile: Wicked Phenomenon (TurboGrafx CD)
10.
Xak (PC Engine CD,
Xak I・II)
11.
Xak II (PC Engine CD,
Xak I・II)
12.
Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
13.
Captain Silver (Sega Master System)
14.
Märchen Veil (Famicom Disk System)
15.
Vanguard (Atari 2600)
16.
Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
17.
Front Line (Atari 2600)
18.
Mario Bros. (Atari 2600)
19.
Harmonia (Steam)
20.
Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
21.
Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
22.
Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes (TurboGrafx CD)
23. Gorf (Atari 2600)You know why I own this game? Because I can't read. Or spell. Years ago I thought I was buying a copy of Atari's
Golf. Ended up with
Gorf. Turns out that this is a pretty notable Midway arcade game. It was ported to several systems, with the Atari conversion being done by CBS. Ah yes, remember when companies like CBS, 20th Century Fox, Mattel, Parker Brothers, and Sears all published games? Those were the days.
Oddly enough, every home port of
Gorf has has one specific level (out of five) removed, as it's a direct rip-off of
Galaxian. Perhaps this is also why the game has never appeared on any Midway compilations.
Gorf plays in the fixed shooter fashion, where your ship shoots vertically and can only move horizontally along a line at the bottom of the screen. There are four distinct stages - rare for any game of this era - and a final boss even makes an appearance in stage four.
Amusingly, stage one is a direct
Space Invaders rip-off. I guess Taito cares significantly less about copyright than Namco. This is also the hardest segment of the game. The "invaders" are aggressive and it's here that you'll discover
Gorf's main quirk. Only one (of your) fired bullets can remain on the screen at a given time. And if another one is fired, it cancels out the one that's already onscreen. Thus, actually hitting enemies takes some meticulous timing.
Level two has consists of ships with giant lazer guns and some speedy swooping foes. It's not too tough, but requires a little bit of clever maneuvering. In stage three the enemies emerge from a black hole. There's a bit of "perspective" shown here as they get larger upon approach. The hostile ships are pretty easy to shoot down, though they emit some large projectiles which will destroy your bullets. The final boss (known as the "Flag Ship" apparently) is almost as pathetic as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from
Vanguard. It just kind of lobs around the screen waiting to be annihilated. Seems like the arcade original had a lot more going on at this point. And now I have just described the entire game. Isn't Atari awesome?
Overall,
Gorf looks and plays reasonably well. It's fast-paced, fluid, and takes some modicum of skill to master. It's a great edition to any Atari 2600 library, and it's always thrilling to discover games this old that contain some kind of end goal. I'd recommend it alongside
Phoenix, which is another solid fixed shooter and another early example of an arcade game with a final boss.
P.S. HUGE SPOILER