Sarge

Arcade Video game published 40 years ago:

Sarge (c) 1985 Bally Midway.

- TECHNICAL -

Bally Midway MCR 3 hardware
[No. 0B88]

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 5 Mhz)
Sound CPU : Motorola M6809 (@ 2 Mhz)
Sound Chips : DAC

Screen orientation : Horizontal
Video resolution : 512 x 480 pixels
Screen refresh : 30.00 Hz
Palette colors : 64

Players : 2
Control : Double 2-way joystick (Vertical)
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Released in October 1985.

Considered by some to be the grandfather of all real-time video battle-games, Sarge was the first coin-op game to give players the ability to deploy multiple vehicles against common adversaries and, of course, each other.

Sarge is also probably the first real 'start-to-finish' design collaboration between artist/animator Brian Colin and programmer Jeff Nauman.

From Brian Colin, Lead Artist on Sarge : "The realistically depicted female soldier featured in the game generated so much interest when it was first introduced that, part-way through it's production run, we slipped a hidden player incentive. With the machine's internal DIP switches set a certain way, players who achieved a rank of Colonel were greeted with a winking, sexy GI Jane wearing little more than a smile.
The DIP switches should be set as follows : 0011000100.
To see if the switches are set correctly, look at the girl at the start of the game. If she is wearing a low-cut T-shirt, then the 'hidden player incentive' is on.".

- STAFF -

Software : Jeff Nauman
Artists : Brian Colin, Sharon Perry
Sounds : Bob Libbe, Neil Falconer
Hardware : Cary Mednick, Steve Ackerman
Mechanical : John Kubik
Added support : Jim Belt

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
Atari 7800: Unreleased prototype.

* COMPUTERS:
PC [DOS] (1989)

- CONTRIBUTE -

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