Space Attack / Head On

Arcade Video game published 45 years ago:

Space Attack + Head On (c) 1979 Sega.

Head On is a two-dimensional maze racing game. You control your car through the maze to pick up the dots while at the same time avoiding the car, or cars, that are constantly trying to ram you. Successfully get through one maze and many more await you. This is good practice for freeway driving in the big city.

Space Attack is another game inspired by "Space Invaders". This one is a more straightforward version, although after you finish off a rack a UFO starts working its way down; shoot it and you'll get a bonus (and maybe a free ship).

- TECHNICAL -

Main CPU : Zilog Z80 (@ 1.93356 Mhz)

Screen orientation : Vertical
Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels
Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz
Palette colors : 64

Players : 2
Control : 4-way joystick
Buttons : 2

- TRIVIA -

Space Attack / Head On is worth mentioning due to it having a rom marked as 'EPR-1', the first of Sega's now 20,000+rom naming scheme!.

Head On is reputed to be the first game in which the player must "eat" all of the dots in order to progress to the next level (One year before "Pac-Man", Head On was the first 'eat-the-dots'-style game).

- SCORING -

* Scoring for Head On :
Dots : 5 points. There are 140 dots per maze to clear giving you 700 points per maze.

* Scoring for Space Attack :
Bottom aliens : 100 points
Middle aliens : 200 points
Top aliens : 300 points
UFOs : 1,000 - 3,000 points

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

Tips and tricks for Head On :

* When you start the game, your car will be located in the open space in the middle of the bottom of the screen in lane one. The jam car will be located in the middle left of the screen in lane one. On the higher levels, they will progress through lanes one, two, and/or three. As you progress through the levels, the number or speed of the jam cars increases. Here is the breakdown :
Level 1 : One Slow Jam Car
Level 2 : One Fast Jam Car
Level 3 : Two Slow Jam Cars
Level 4 : Two Fast Jam Cars
Level 5 : Three Slow Jam Cars
Level 6 and beyond : Three Fast Jam Cars

* Always be aware of where the Jam Car(s) is/are located. They can only make one lane change at a time but that lane change may be into your lane.

* The faster you go, the fewer lanes you can cross. At full acceleration, you will only be able to change one lane at a time. In the earlier levels, this will be fine since you will only be dealing with one car. In the multiple Jam Car levels, this can be a very bad thing. Decelerate (take your finger off the accelerate button) to go across multiple lanes.

* The Jam Car(s) always travel in a clockwise motion while you travel in a counterclockwise motion. Remember that so that you don't get confused when there are multiple cars in the maze. Also, the color of the Jam Car is red while yours is white.

* Don't try to get all the dots on one of the lanes. You need to anticipate where your next move is well before you enter the lane change area since you cannot change lanes at any other time. Sometimes, on the earlier levels, it is best to do a staggered type dot pickup where you do lane one, change to lane two, to lane three, lane four, lane five, then back to lane one. If you time it right, the Jam Car or Cars will still be in the maze.

* Don't let the speed of the Jam Car(s) throw you. Just plan to be out of your lane and in the lane change area before them. If both cars enter at the same time, you run a big risk of a collision.