Exterminator

Arcade Video game published 35 years ago:

Exterminator (c) 1989 Gottlieb.

A wholly abstract approach to the shoot-em-up genre in which one or two players take control of a disembodied, digitized human hand and must kill the swarms of insects that have infested a street of houses.

Exterminator is set in a street of houses and players must move from room to room in each property, clearing each one of the infestation, before moving onto the next house. Each player can initially only grab or 'thump' enemies (the latter for ground-based, crawling insects), but a number of power-ups, such as bug spray and somewhat bizarrely, a laser firing finger can be collected to make progress a little easier.

- TECHNICAL -

Game ID : V-101

Main CPU : (2x) TMS34010 (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound CPU : (2x) M6502 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound Chips : DAC, YM2151 (@ 4 Mhz)

Players : 2
Control : dial
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in February 1989.

This was the first game to use digitized graphics for every element of the game. It was also the first and only video game produced by Premier Technology and the last to carry the 'Gottlieb' badge. Production numbers are estimated at only 250 units worldwide; the machines proved to be very unreliable in the field and the abstract gameplay was not a huge hit with players. The dedicated and slightly odd cabinet design made it less appealing to operators, since many other games that were being released during that time were conversion kits. Exterminator remains one of the boldest, if least successful moves to bring something genuinely original to an increasingly staid arcade industry.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* On the first level inside the kitchens of houses one and 3, the freezer door swings open only once, releasing some floor-based enemies. If you get the hand in laser mode and shoot while the door is open, you will warp to the other house.

- STAFF -

Designed and programmed by: Warren Davis
Graphics by: Jeff Lee
Music by: Dave Zabriskie
Sound by: Craig Beierwaltes

- PORTS -

* COMPUTERS:
Atari ST (1991)
Amstrad CPC (1991)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum (1991)
Commodore C64 (1991)