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Battlezone

Game Mechanics

The player controls an assault tank in a minimalist 3D environment visualized from the inside of the machine, for subjective view. The goal of the game is to destroy the maximum of enemies without being touched. The enemies include tanks, superchars, missiles and flying saucers. The tanks are mobile and fire. The superchar is more mobile and fast than the normal tank. The missiles appear in the sky, then fly over the ground towards the player by performing zigzags: a synchronization Very precise is required to destroy them.The flying saucers are harmless: their destruction brings bonus points.

The interface includes a viewfinder in the center of the screen, which allows to target enemies, and a radar screen, which allows to locate enemies outside the field of vision. The arcade terminal offers a control system based on the use of two joysticks two tracks that independently trigger the activation of the larvae. The screen is positioned at the head level, in a recess suggesting a kind of telescopic view. Battlezone is one of the first examples of video game close to notion of virtual reality.

The game space represents a mountain-mounted valley, which is described as the first example of 3D representation space in the video game. Environments and enemies are modeled in 3D. The player can move freely in space, both on the X and Y axes (rather than following a predetermined path). It is thus possible to visualize enemy tanks under all points of view, 360°. The environment includes primitive objects (cubes, pyramids), which can have a tactical role in serving as protection and which, in the absence of an enemy tank on the screen, constitute the only markers advanced in the decor. The mountainous horizon, which presents a volcano in eruption and the moon, is represented in 2D and cannot be joined: it undergoes only a lateral scroll at each change of direction of the tank, simulating a pseudo parallax effect with the objects of the foreground.

As a precursor to 3D representation in arcade and family video game, the world of Battlezone marks the imagination of the player of the time. Since the virtual world does not materialize any physical barrier, the player is tempted to get away from the battlefield in the hope of reaching the horizon. The programmers however considered this possibility, first with the aim of rentabilizing the game time: the adventurous players are reminded to order by a succession of missiles that target them until death follows. In the aisles of the arcades, he nevertheless tells of the existence of a secret passage leading to another, as to the famous crater.