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I'm trying to remember an arcade game I remember seeing in the early to mid 1980s. It was a space shooting game, in which you control a space ship, which you control up and down and side to side, but motion is always "into the screen", rather like Space Harrier.

The view had the enemy ships scaling as they approached you, I think.

The ship you controlled seemed to be in some tunnels, or more appropriately named, corridors of either a large ship or space station? The corridors (in light blues and light greys) would occasionally curve. Also I recall the game was always in the corridors, there was no open space part.

I thought Astron Belt might be it, but it seems like that game is mostly in open space and the corridors are at the end. It's definitely not R-Type.

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  • Was it sort of directly into the screen, with items scaling as you went in? Isometric 3D? Vector graphics? Pixel art?
    – FuzzyBoots
    Nov 12, 2020 at 21:27
  • Space Harrier style, I think they're referring to.
    – Valorum
    Nov 12, 2020 at 21:28
  • 2
    @NKCampbell - R-Type was a left-to-right scroller
    – Valorum
    Nov 12, 2020 at 21:38
  • 1
    @Gaston - Your question would be much improved if you went through the checklist here; How to ask a good (video game) story-ID question
    – Valorum
    Nov 12, 2020 at 21:40
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    If it was vector graphics, the Star Wars arcade game could fit the description - starting in space, ending up in the trench...
    – LAK
    Nov 12, 2020 at 21:58

4 Answers 4

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Might it be Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom (1982) by Sega? (Page on RetroGamer)

Planet of Zoom was a good arcade game. It wasn’t great, but neither was it rubbish either. If you had a spare 10p coin in an 80’s arcade then you could do worse than feed it to this machine.

It had a great controller. A big joystick/aeroplane type stick, with light up buttons. Controlling Buck’s ship was a dream. It looked a bit fragile, but it seemed to hold up to the punishment you dished out to it.

Sega’s game predates After Burner by 3-4 years, but was clearly an influence. You have a back view of your ship, and you hurtle across planet’s surfaces and through trenches (a la Star Wars). The graphics are generally good with big sprites for both you and the enemy. If there was a criticism then it’s that they are a bit gaudy and migraine inducing, but you can’t have anything.

Boss fight from Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

Arcade cockpit for Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

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    Hmmm no that's not it, Buck Rogers is either trench or open air. I recall the background graphics being (or at least seeming) very realistic for the time, which is why I thought it is most likely laserdisc based, but all the searching I've done always points to Astron Belt. I suppose because there doesn't seem to have been that many laserdisc games overall (compared to regular ones)
    – Gaston
    Nov 13, 2020 at 19:04
  • @Gaston The only other possibility I can come up with is Thunder Ceptor but there are enough discrepancies I'm not confident about it.
    – DavidW
    Nov 23, 2020 at 20:59
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I believe I have found the game: Galaxy Ranger (1983 Sega (Midway licence)). It is very similar to Astron Belt.

This YT video shows the corridors I was thinking of: (link starts at timestamp which shows the corridors). Not sure why I thought it was 'always' in corridors, maybe it was because I never got to look at it for very long before I was dragged into the department store by my parents.

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    Are you the original querent? If so, you can merge your accounts as per the instructions here so that you can accept by clicking on the checkmark by the voting buttons.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Sep 19, 2022 at 14:01
  • Ok I remembered which email I used for the original account, so I was able to confirm for both.
    – Gaston
    Sep 19, 2022 at 14:38
  • Check the answer as accepted then.
    – jo1storm
    Sep 20, 2022 at 8:40
  • Well that settles it. I clicked on both links in the emails I got after the merge request, but it didn't go through. In any case, I did it again just now
    – Gaston
    Sep 21, 2022 at 19:16
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It could be Descent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_(video_game)

The thing not fitting is the timeline (Descent came out in the 90s) and possibly arcade (it was originally Dos game). You could do the 3d view of the ship instead of cockpit.

enter image description here

"The ship you controlled seemed to be in some tunnels, or more appropriately named, corridors of either a large ship or space station? The corridors (in light blues and light greys) would occasionally curve. Also I recall the game was always in the corridors, there was no open space part."

Every level was inside the tunnels, asteroids and space stations.

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  • That seems too definitely 3D, whereas they state that it was only pseudo 3-D.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Sep 19, 2022 at 14:00
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Could the game have been Zaxxon, perhaps?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon

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    Hi, welcome to SciFi.SE. Could you edit your answer to to include some extra details? Why do you believe Zaxxon is what the OP is looking for?
    – fez
    Dec 6, 2023 at 6:14

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