GORF Arcade Reviewed
My first introduction to the classic arcade shooter GORF was on a school trip in 1981. As we piled out of the coach and into the service station on the M1 motorway, I could hear a robotic voice calling from the arcadeā¦.
The voice was the alien from the GORF arcade cabinet, mocking the player to put in another 10p and attempt to defeat the Gorfian empire.
GORF was released by Midway at the height of the 80ās arcade craze, introducing a number of never before seen game features, wrapped in a colourful and brightly lit cabinet that just (literally) screamed PLAY ME!
But was it really more than the sum of its many parts? Or a 80ās gaming anachronism that really didnāt stand the test of time?
What does GORF stand for?
The most literal answer to the question āwhat does GORF meanā is āGalactic Orbiting Robot Forceā. Which is a much better explanation than just āFROG backwardsā, although this was the nickname of the game designer Jamie Fenton. So perhaps the GORF name came first, and the designers worked backwards to create the acronym.
GORF Arcade Levels
Like Phoenix before it, GORF game was a shooter made up of 5 distinct levels, some “borrowed” from existing shooters such as Galaxian (Namco) and Space Invader (Taito). Rather than these borrowed levels being ābootlegsā or illegitimate copies of other manufacturers intellectual property, Midway had at various points had licencing relationships with the Japanese manufacturers. This meant that the re-use in GORF was entirely above board.
GORF Mission 1: Astro Battles
This mission is reminiscent of Space Invaders, where players must destroy waves of alien ships dropping down the screen, speeding up as their numbers are reduced. Unlike Space Invaders, the player has a shield which absorbs alien bullets, but is damaged by your own bullets. This would then make a hole through which you can be attacked. Destroy all alien invaders before they reach your ship and you progress to the next mission.
GORF Mission 2: Laser Attack
Players face off against fast-moving laser ships that require quick reflexes to defeat. The laser ships move unpredictably, with the laser blasts creating a solid wall which could trap the player. The other ships would break formation and attempt to dive bomb you, or drive you into the path of the laser.
The Laser Attack level of Gorf also featured small robots, which were first seen on the attract screen, and in the Astro Battle level.
GORF Mission 3: Galaxians
Similar to the game Galaxian, this mission involves battling swarms of attacking aliens. The aliens use complex patterns and formations, making this mission a test of the player’s ability to anticipate and respond to the dive bombing ships.
Unlike the original Galaxians, you have a small advantage in being able to move a small distance vertically, which was often handy when avoiding the swooping alien ships.
Mission 4: Space Warp
This level required the player to destroy alien ships that move quickly in rapidly increasing circles from the centre of the screen towards you. A star pattern emerges slowly from the centre of the screen, forming no other function than giving the impression of depth as the alien ship swoops from the distance.
The alien ships fire large fireballs at quirky angles that are fast and difficult to dodge, so itās better to shoot the aliens early as they emerge from the distance.
Mission 5: Flagship
The final mission involves a boss battle against the Gorfian Flagship. In a reversal of the first level, the forefield protects the Flagship and not you, and your player ship has to punch holes through it. The Flagship has a central weak point (much like that of the boss level in Phoenix) that must be targeted while avoiding its powerful fireball attacks, which can pass straight through the force field.
Destroy the Flagship and the game returns to the first level.
GORF Arcade Special Features
In addition to the robotic voice, GORF had other novel features such as the ability to buy up to seven lives depending on how many coins were deposited at the start of the game. Another feature was the ability to cancel your current shot (you only got one at a time) by pressing fire again so you could make the most of the limited number of missiles.
One of the most novel features of the game was the ārankā feature, which displayed the playerās current rank on the bezel surrounding the screen. Not only did the screen light up to show everyone your current rank, the voice taunts would change to reflect your current status. This introduced another reason to keep playing, as your rank was a very public display of your arcade prowess.
Was GORF the first video game to feature voice synthesis?
The stand-out feature of GORF was the synthetic voice, which mocked the player depending on their rank, as well as a backlit panel beside the screen which showed your current level – more like a pinball machine than a shooter. Not helpful for reuse of the cabinet, which was a priority for early arcade owners, so not repeated elsewhere on other games as far as I am aware.
Rather than using pre-recorded voice clips, like that on the Atari Star Wars game, the Gorf cabinet used actual voice sythesis, allowing real-time creation of player taunts. Gorf used the Vortrax SC-01 speech synthesis chip, but it wasnāt however the first arcade game to use it. This honour goes to the Wizard of Wor arcade game released a year earlier in 1980. The SC-01 chip was also used in the 1982 QBert and Reactor arcade games.
For reference, here are the full list of GORF Taunts:
- āINSERT COINSā
- āI DEVOUR COINSā
- āI AM THE GORFIAN CONSCIOUSNESSā
- āROBOT WARRIORS SEEK AND DESTROY SPACE (rank)ā
- āYOU WILL MEET A GORFIAN DOOMā
- āGORFIANS TAKE NO PRISONERSā
- āPREPARE TO BE ANNIHILATED SPACE (rank)ā
- āLONG LIVE GORFā
- āBAD MOVE SPACE (rank)ā
- āALL HAIL THE SUPREME GORFIAN EMPIREā
- āSURVIVAL IS IMPOSSIBLE SPACE (rank)ā
- āMY GORFIAN ROBOTS ARE UNBEATABLEā
- āGORFIANS CONQUER ANOTHER GALAXYā
- āSOME GALACTIC DEFENDER YOU ARE SPACE (rank)ā
- āI AM THE GORFIAN EMPIREā
GORF ports for home consoles and computers
With the popularity of the arcade version of GORF, a number of home console and computer game versions were released, with varying levels of success. The one common theme across all the games is the omission of the Galaxians level, due to the copyright not extending beyond the arcade version. Iāve listed the official conversions below with some thoughts on the quality of the gameplay in relation to the the original.
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 version is probably the most graphically accurate conversion of GORF, albeit with a horizontal screen format. The standout feature of this conversion is the use of speech synthesis, using the Magic Voice Speech Module, a hardware plugin for the C64.
There is one issue however, and that is the player ship, which is both too big and too slow, making bullet dodging a matter of luck rather than skill. Level 3 in particular is a challenge, where some enemy projectiles are completely unavoidable, resulting is some very frustrating gameplay.
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 version of GORF suffers from the usual issues with this early console, namely its limited graphical capability. So several features had to be omitted, most obvious being any form of shield in levels 1 and 4, and the missing starfield effect in level 3. Unfortunately itās these features that make the game recognisable as GORF, so you are left with a generic space invader clone.
Putting aside these limitations, the Atari 2600 version of GORF is not a terrible game in its own right and should be part of your cartridge collection.
Colecovision
The Colecovision had some great arcade conversions, being more powerful and with better graphics and sound than its major competitor, the Atari 2600. Colecovision GORF is no exception, a faithful recreation of the original including the gameplay on each level and some very authentic sound effects.
Everything is there, from the 2 dimensional movement in later levels and the shields in the Invader and Flagship stages.
BBC Micro
The BBC Micro also had some great arcade conversions, unfortunately GORF is not one of them. Given the relative power and graphics of the BBC machine it should have been better, from the missing Lasers in the first Laser Battle stage, to the missing shield in the Flagship (for some reason called Mothership) stage.
The final stage is particularly frustrating as you have to shoot EVERY pixel of the mothership core, even when the rest of the ship has been blasted away.
VIC-20
The graphics on the VIC-20 version look too big, and they really are too big to be a faithful replica of GORF, but somehow it still a great game.
Atari 800 Computer
Atari 5200
Lasting impact of the Gorf Arcade game
GORF itself was relatively easy to complete, but quite unfair with some very dodgy collision detection seeing bullets which missed you by a mile destroying your ship. For this reason I suspect GORF was not as popular as it could have been, as it became a major frustration the more you played the game.
Home conversions were released on Atari and Colecovision consoles, but interestingly they omitted the Galaxians level, most likely for copyright reasons. GORF was also released for VIC20 and C64.
um……Gorf for the Atari Jaguar was the ONLY home console to ever receive a true port of the game. All five levels….that’s right…..including Galaxians. How do I know this? I programmed it. Take a look here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9dchmjp2Oc