Upon release, Bosconian received generally positive reviews. Due to the rising popularity of Galaga and a shortage of arcade machines for the game, many of the Bosconian machines that were not selling were transformed into Galaga machines.
However, the game was less successful internationally. Game Machine later listed Bosconian in their August issue as the 22nd most successful table arcade cabinet of the month. In Japan, Bosconian was the seventh highest-grossing arcade game of 1981, according to the annual Game Machine chart. Reception īest Science Fiction/Fantasy Coin-Op Game The game involves the unnamed pilot of the Starfighter defeating the aliens to save Earth. However, only one such vehicle could be built. In an attempt to fight back against the aliens and regain their independence, humans built a spacecraft known as the Starfighter with the best technology they could find. The game takes place after the fictional Rock War, an intergalactic conflict between mankind and aliens which ended with the aliens destroying Earth with missile-firing space stations, known as "Orbitals", and enslaving all humans. Throughout the game, a digitized voice alerts the player to various events, such as incoming enemies or an approaching spy ship. A spy ship will also appear occasionally, which must be destroyed or the game's alert system will turn to red regardless of how long the player has taken. Enemy bases will also occasionally launch a squadron of ships in formation attacks - destroying the leader causes all remaining enemies to disperse, but destroying all enemies in a formation scores extra bonus points. Īdditionally, the player must avoid or destroy stationary asteroids, mines, and a variety of enemy missiles and ships which attempt to collide with his or her ship. The game also features a color-coded alert system with voice commands. A radar display on the right-hand side of the screen shows where enemies are located relative to the player. In later levels, cores begin defending themselves by opening and closing while launching missiles. To destroy a base, the player must either shoot the core or destroy all six cannons, the latter of which gives the player extra points. Each base has six globe-like cannons arranged in a hexagon around a central core. The number of bases increases with each round. During each round, several green enemy bases - known as "base stars" - appear, all of which must be destroyed in order to advance to the next round. Throughout the game, the Starfighter stays affixed to the center of the screen as it moves. The player controls the Starfighter, a ship that can move in eight directions and fires both forward and backward simultaneously. The objective of Bosconian is to score as many points as possible by destroying enemy missiles and bases.
In-game screenshot showing an enemy base being destroyed. The game has subsequently been regarded by critics as influential in the shoot 'em up genre. The game was ported to home computers as Bosconian '87 in 1987, and spawned two sequels: Blast Off in 1989, and Final Blaster in 1990. Bosconian became the first shoot 'em up game to feature diagonal movement.īosconian was commercially successful in Japan and received positive critical reception, but did not achieve the global commercial success of other shoot 'em up games from the golden age of arcade video games. The goal of the game is to earn as many points as possible by destroying enemy missiles and bases using a ship which shoots from both the front and back. In North America, it was manufactured and distributed by Midway Games. Single-player, multiplayer (alternating turns)īosconian is a multidirectional scrolling shooter arcade game which was developed and released by Namco in Japan in 1981.
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