Moon War:
In 1981, Stern released "Moon War" as a conversion for Scramble and a few other scrolling shooter games. Much like the other games of this ilk, the player manned a spaceship over the Moon's terrain, shooting targets. Each of the 16 targets had it's own point value that you would earn for destroying them. Using your shields to deflect enemy ships would cause your fuel to decrease, requiring you to stop at a "refueling base" to restore your energy. Stopping at these bases would earn you points and increase the difficulty of the game. Moon War featured a "top down" view of the game rather that the traditional "side scroll" view and featured a 2 player control layout with a "steering wheel" (a sort of spinning disc reminiscent of a trackball) and three buttons: Fire Missile, Warp Drive and Shields.

Once again, we have here a game that doesn't quite live up to the pure awesomeness of the flyer. The 1940's Buck Rogers style illustrations provide an interesting counterpoint to the pure eighties-ness of the model. I particularly love her sort of half-assed attempt at those Hooters-esque shorts that give full meaning to the words "The Ultimate Moon Shot" hovering right underneath. This "ass to the camera" pose was a very popular one for arcade flyers at this time. It's really a shame that companies don't advertise games like this anymore. Flynn De Marco

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