Description

The locale is described by the game cabinet as "The Crystal City": it is a simple 9x9 grid of roads demarcated by rectangular buildings. The player, piloting the Wummel, which looks like a small green car, maneuvers through the maze trying to shoot enemies and avoid collisions. Most of the enemies consist of angry-looking red wedges, or "Targs". Occasionally, a small cyan-colored "Spectar Smuggler" will appear; shooting this is worth a significant point bonus. When all the enemies have been destroyed, a bonus is awarded and a new round starts. If the player takes too long to clear the board, the speed of the Targ ships increase until they are traveling faster than the player's Wummel.

None of the enemies shoot back. Their sole means of killing the player is ramming in to him. Despite this, the game is quite challenging.

Legacy

Many games of the time were developed by Japanese companies, such as 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....

 or Namco

Namco

is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...

, and then licensed by Western companies. Targ has the distinction of being one of the rare games that was developed in the west and licensed by a Japanese company — in this case, 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...

.

Targ sold well enough to spawn a more elaborate sequel, Spectar

Spectar

Spectar is an arcade game released by Exidy depicting vehicular combat in a future world. The original game was released in November 1980. ROM revision 3 was released in April 1981. ROM revision 2 was for internal use only at Exidy and never installed into any video game cabinet. Spectar was a...

. The 1982 game Crossfire for the Apple II

Apple II

The Apple II is an 8-bit home computer, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products, designed primarily by Steve Wozniak, manufactured by Apple Computer and introduced in 1977...

 and Atari

Atari

Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...

 platforms is often considered a port of Targ, though it does bears some differences (most notably, the ability of opponents to fire). A closer clone is the TRS-80

TRS-80

TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...

 Attack Force. A direct port of Targ was developed for the Atari 2600

Atari 2600

The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...

 by CBS Games, but was never released due to the video game crash of 1983

Video game crash of 1983

The North American video game crash was a serious event that brought an abrupt end to what is considered the second generation of console video gaming in North America. Beginning in 1983, the crash almost destroyed the then-fledgling industry and led to the bankruptcy of several companies producing...

.

External links

• Prototype of Targ for the Atari 2600.