Moon Patrol

Moon Patrol
U.S. arcade flyer of Moon Patrol.
Developer(s)	Irem
Publisher(s)	Irem, Williams Electronics
Platform(s)	Arcade
Release date(s)	1982
Genre(s)	Run and gun/Vehicular combat game
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Input methods	Joystick (2-way); 2 buttons
Cabinet	Upright
Arcade system	Irem M-52 hardware Main CPU: Z80 (@ 3.072 MHz) Sound CPU: M6803 (@ 894.886 kHz) Sound Chips: (2x) AY8910 (@ 894.886 kHz), (2x) MSM5205 (@ 384 kHz)
Display	Raster resolution 240×248 (Horizontal) Palette Colors 576

Moon Patrol (ムーンパトロール^?) is a classic arcade game by Irem that was first released in 1982. It was licensed to Williams for U.S. distribution.

The player controls a moon buggy, viewing it from the side, that travels over the moon's surface. While driving it, obstacles such as craters and mines must be avoided. The buggy is also attacked by UFOs from above and tanks on the ground. Moon Patrol was one of the earliest linear side-scrolling shoot'em ups and the first arcade game to feature parallax scrolling.^[1]

Story

The player takes the role of a Luna City police officer assigned to Sector Nine, the home of the "toughest thugs in the galaxy."

Gameplay

The top portion of the screen shows a timeline-style map of the current course, and three indicator lights. The top light indicates upcoming enemy aerial attacks, the middle one indicates an upcoming minefield, and the bottom one indicates enemies approaching from behind.

The map shows five different checkpoints labeled E, J, O, T and Z. Similar to racing games, the time spent during between each checkpoint is compared to the average which determines the amount of bonus points allocated to the player. The game contains two courses, the regular and champion course; after completing the first course your buggy's color changes from pink to red and the game continues on.

Ports

There have been many ports of Moon Patrol to home computers and console game systems, including:

• Apple II
• Atari 800
• Atari 2600
• Atari 5200
• Atari ST*
• ColecoVision (in prototype form; never released to the public)
• Commodore 64
• Commodore VIC-20
• Mobile (Moon Patrol EX)
• MSX
• Game Boy Color (Arcade Hits: Moon Patrol & Spy Hunter)
• PC booter
• Dreamcast (included in Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 2)
• PlayStation (included in Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits - The Midway Collection 2)
• Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
• TRS-80 Color Computer
• ZX Spectrum (completed but never released)

Clones

• A bootleg version called Moon Ranger was released in the arcades the same year.^[2]

References

External links

• Moon Patrol at the Killer List of Videogames
• Moon Patrol guide at StrategyWiki
• Moon Patrol at MobyGames
• Video from the C64 Version on archive.org

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