Lazer Command

Arcade Video game published 48 years ago:

Lazer Command (c) 1976 Meadows Games.

You have an overhead view of a maze with two sides, the sides mirror each other. The left side of the screen is yellow, and the right side is green. On each side are fifteen tanks. The object is to blow up all of the opposing players tanks (or as many as you can before the timer runs out). You can only control one tank at a time, you can move them around and blast your opponents tanks (getting the active one is usually a good idea). When you get blasted, your tank vanishes, and you must move a little blip over to another tank to resume play (this blip is invisible unless it is against a wall). You can also leave your tank and head for another one by pressing the second button. This is just a great strategic title, it holds up even today. It is really worth playing if you like that sort of thing. Just be aware that this is a two player only title, so you will need a friend to play against.

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : S2650 (@ 672 Khz)
Sound Chips : DAC

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 256 x 230 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 3

Players : 2
Control : 8-way joystick
Buttons : 2

Lazer Command had one ugly cabinet. It was just a big yellow box without any curves or angles at all. The control panel had two large 4-Way joysticks, that each had two fire buttons, these did not have a ball on top or anything like that, they were kind of like bicycle handgrips with fire buttons. The machine had sticker style sideart, which was a circle with an explosion inside that said 'Lazer Command'. The marquee was rather plain, and was simply labelled with the title in red letters, while the monitor bezel had detailed game instructions printed on it. The monitor was a black and white monochrome model with a green and yellow overlay.

- TRIVIA -