Arcade Video game published 31 years ago:
Assault (c) 1988 Namco, Limited.
Your mission is to reclaim your homeland by destroying the enemy forces that have taken over. You have an Assault tank, the supreme mobile weapon. Your tank has artillery guns and grenades, can perform Rapid Rolls to dodge enemy shots, and uses Power Wheelies to launch grenades.
Your controls are two 4-position joysticks with triggers. These controls make Assault like no other tank game. You have a quick, highly responsive vehicle with fast movement in all directions. To avoid enemy shots, Rapid Roll your tank left or right by moving both joysticks to the same side. To launch grenades, put the tank in the Power Wheelie position by moving both joysticks to the outside, then pressing either trigger. Your grenades are triple the fire power of your tank's standard shots.
Your tank is always in the center of the screen no matter what direction you are going. With Assault's 360-degree scrolling playfield, the world rotates around you as you move. An arrow always points you towards the exit to the next level.
The lift zone gives you an advantage over the invaders and a spectacular view of the playfield. Each lift zone is a five-sided platform on the playfield that flashes red when you can use it. When you drive onto the lift zone, your tank jets straight up to get a bird's eye view of the surrounding terrain and enemy lines. From this overhead position, you can reconnoiter enemy forces and bomb enemy outposts.
Fight your way through 11 different levels to seek out and destroy the invader’s headquarters. To succeed, you must :
* Dodge enemy gunfire with the Rapid Roll maneuver.
* Assault enemy lines with long-range powerful grenades launched from Power Wheelies.
* Destroy all enemy tanks you encounter to prevent rear attacks.
* Bomb enemy outposts and reconnoiter enemy emplacements using the lift zones.
* Protect yourself against enemy artillery using buildings and trees.
* Blow up the large cannons on each level while you avoid enemy attacks.
* Follow the arrow to find the exit to the next level. Before you can exit, you must destroy the large cannons defending the enemy strongholds.
- TECHNICAL -
The Assault dedicated cabinet is a real favorite among arcade game collectors. This is probably due to its unique shape, and non-standard controls. The Assault cabinet was very narrow, the vertical open frame monitor barely fit between the sides of the thing, which were less than 18'' apart. A standard arcade cabinet is about 23'' wide if it is an older style one, or 30'' wide for one of the newer deluxe cabinet styles. So Assault was very narrow, probably the narrowest game ever made. The top half of the cabinet is decorated with sideart that is supposed to resemble the outside of a yellow tank, and these same graphics carry on over the monitor bezel and control panel as well.
Cabinet dimensions : 74,25'' (188,60cm) high x 25,50'' (64,77cm) wide x 34,50'' (87,63cm) deep.
Cabinet weight : 285 lbs (129,28 kg).
Namco System 2 hardware
Game ID : AT
Main CPU : (2x) Motorola 68000 (@ 12.288 Mhz), M6809 (@ 3.072 Mhz), HD63705 (@ 2.048 Mhz)
Sound Chips : C140 (@ 21.39 Khz), YM2151 (@ 3.57958 Mhz)
Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 288 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz
Palette colors : 8192
Players : 2
Control : Double 8-way joysticks
Buttons : 1
- TRIVIA -
Assault was released in April 1988 in Japan.
Licensed to Atari for US distribution (August 1988). 1079 units were produced by Atari in the USA. The selling price was $2295.
This game uses a unique control method and uses 'Mode 7' background scaling and rotation effects like those found in Super Nintendo/Super Famicom games. The most interesting feature is firing 'catapult' bomb shots far away with the left joystick pushed to the left side and the right joystick to the right at the same time, while pressing the fire trigger.
An upgrade of this game is called "Assault Plus".
Victor Entertainment released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Namco Video Game Graffiti Volume 3 - VDR-5278) on December 16, 1988.
- STAFF -
Game Design & Game Story : Hiroyuki Takeshima
Game Program : Nyan-Nyan Wan-Wan
Chief Visual Designer : Nobuhiko Ave
Visual Creating Crew : Hideyuki Kikuchi, Yoshihiro Sugiyama, Junko Anzai
Music Composer & Sound Effects : Shinji Hosoe, Kazuo Noguchi
Master Debugger : Takao Okada
Control Panel Design : Akira Ohsugi, Hiroyuki Kobayashi
Production Management : Shigeru Yokoyama, Toshio Natsui, Kunio Saitho
Producer : Kazunori Sawano, Yasuhiko Asada
Executive Producer : Masaya Nakamura
Special Thanks To : Tohru Iwatani, Eiichiro Satoh
Based On Characters Designed By : Kunio Ohkawara
- PORTS -
* CONSOLES:
[JP] Sony PlayStation (nov.8, 1996) "Namco Museum Vol.4 [Model SLPS-00540]"
[AU] Sony PlayStation (1997) "Namco Museum Vol.4"
[US] Sony PlayStation (june.30, 1997) "Namco Museum Vol.4 [Model SLUS-00416]"
[EU] Sony PlayStation (aug.1997) "Namco Museum Vol.4 [Model SCES-00701]"
- CONTRIBUTE -
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