Ozma Wars
Encyclopedia
Ozma Wars is a 1979 scrolling shooter arcade game
, which is the very first game developed and published by SNK
. In fact, at the time of its creation the company was still known as "Shin Nihon Kikaku". The game is also known as the second ever vertical shoot 'em up
game, after Taito
's Space Invaders
(which ran on the same arcade hardware), but is also additionally known as the first game with disparate "levels". The game is also notable for being the first action game
to feature a supply of energy, resembling a life bar, a mechanic that has now become common in the majority of modern action games. The game allowed the player to refuel energy between each level, and it featured a large variety of alien enemies. Many of the game's concepts would later be further developed in Sega
's Astro Blaster
, Sierra On-Line
's Threshold, and Activision
's Megamania
.
The player controls a space ship which most fend off UFO's, meteor
s, and comet
s. Instead of lives, the player is given an energy reserve that is constantly decrementing; getting hit by the enemy causes gameplay to stop momentarily while a large amount of energy is depleted. Every so often, a mothership will appear and dock with the player's spacecraft, causing the energy to be refilled. There are 3-4 recognizable "stages" as the game progresses and new enemies begin to appear. After these, the re-filling ship will appear, and the cycle will start over; this occurs indefinitely.
There are two known bootleg versions of this game called Space Phantoms and Solar Flight. In Space Phantoms the player's ship looks like an angel, and the enemies appear as different types of insects. Due to the game being monochrome and a conversion kit for Space Invaders, many Ozma Wars monitors still utilized the Space Invaders color overlay.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
, which is the very first game developed and published by SNK
SNK Playmore
SNK Playmore Corporation is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. SNK is an acronym of , which was SNK's original name. The company's legal and trading name became SNK in 1986....
. In fact, at the time of its creation the company was still known as "Shin Nihon Kikaku". The game is also known as the second ever vertical shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
game, after Taito
Taito Corporation
The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....
's Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
(which ran on the same arcade hardware), but is also additionally known as the first game with disparate "levels". The game is also notable for being the first action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
to feature a supply of energy, resembling a life bar, a mechanic that has now become common in the majority of modern action games. The game allowed the player to refuel energy between each level, and it featured a large variety of alien enemies. Many of the game's concepts would later be further developed in Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Astro Blaster
Astro Blaster
Astro Blaster is a shoot 'em up arcade game released by Sega in 1981.-Gameplay:The player controls a ship which can fire and move left or right...
, Sierra On-Line
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
's Threshold, and Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
's Megamania
Megamania
Megamania is an Atari 2600 game designed by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. It took about six months to develop the concept, and another three months to fine tune the game. It was later released for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit family in 1983, ported by Glyn Anderson...
.
The player controls a space ship which most fend off UFO's, meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
s, and comet
Comet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
s. Instead of lives, the player is given an energy reserve that is constantly decrementing; getting hit by the enemy causes gameplay to stop momentarily while a large amount of energy is depleted. Every so often, a mothership will appear and dock with the player's spacecraft, causing the energy to be refilled. There are 3-4 recognizable "stages" as the game progresses and new enemies begin to appear. After these, the re-filling ship will appear, and the cycle will start over; this occurs indefinitely.
There are two known bootleg versions of this game called Space Phantoms and Solar Flight. In Space Phantoms the player's ship looks like an angel, and the enemies appear as different types of insects. Due to the game being monochrome and a conversion kit for Space Invaders, many Ozma Wars monitors still utilized the Space Invaders color overlay.