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 arcade….
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 80’s 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 80’s gaming anachronism that really didn’t stand the test of time?
What does GORF stand for?
The most literal answer to the question “what does GORF mean” is “Galactic Orbiting Robot Force”. Which is a much better explanation than just “FROG backwards”, 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 “bootlegs” 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.
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.
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.
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 it’s 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 “rank” feature, which displayed the player’s 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 wasn’t 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:
- ”INSERT COINS”
- ‘I DEVOUR COINS”
- ”I AM THE GORFIAN CONSCIOUSNESS”
- ”ROBOT WARRIORS SEEK AND DESTROY SPACE (rank)”
- ”YOU WILL MEET A GORFIAN DOOM”
- ”GORFIANS TAKE NO PRISONERS”
- ”PREPARE TO BE ANNIHILATED SPACE (rank)”
- ”LONG LIVE GORF”
- ”BAD MOVE SPACE (rank)”
- ”ALL HAIL THE SUPREME GORFIAN EMPIRE”
- ”SURVIVAL IS IMPOSSIBLE SPACE (rank)”
- ”MY GORFIAN ROBOTS ARE UNBEATABLE”
- ”GORFIANS CONQUER ANOTHER GALAXY”
- ”SOME GALACTIC DEFENDER YOU ARE SPACE (rank)”
- ”I AM THE GORFIAN EMPIRE”
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.
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