3 ms·

Sega Jet Rocket: The '70s arcade game with no computer or screen

136 points by geox 2y ago

metadat 2y ago
I thought there was another 70's screen-free arcade game discussed on HN in the past year, but I've failed to pull it up. At first I thought this article must be about the same thing. Can you help me remember?
- jaredhallen 2y ago
  I remember something about a home game that involved dropping bombs. Can't recall the name though.
  - UncleSlacky 2y ago
    Maybe "Chutes Away"? https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5790/chutes-away https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5790/chutes-away (from this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40740616 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40740616)
- hcs 2y ago
  About one year ago was a little discussion of the much older Nimatron, maybe? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36856755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36856755
Loughla 2y ago
2 things. 1. That is an amazing design and amazing engineering. I legitimately am astounded by the creativity and thought that went into that. 2. The writing style where the author feels the need to apologize for anything even remotely technical (like: Once again, just bear with us for a bit) comes across as either childish or condescending. What purpose does that serve? Anyone clicking a link about an old arcade game with no computer or screen obviously wants to know how it works. Why write like that?
- ownedthx 2y ago
  It’s writing colloquially… the writer has the difficult job of describing something that’s happening inside this cabinet over time and space and other dimensions Imposed by the game and players behavior. Bear with us means, ‘I’m about to do a bunch of description… shore up your mental banks and prepare to reread the next bit a few times. Man
- reaperducer 2y ago
  2 things You did the exact same thing that the author of the article did, then criticized him for it?
ramses0 2y ago
Visit "Musée Méchanique" if this tickles your fancy! https://museemecanique.com/ https://museemecanique.com/
- zikduruqe 2y ago
  Yep. If you do anything touristy down the area, this is the place to go.
tomcam 2y ago
Great game. It was always broken.
- rbanffy 2y ago
  I remember playing it, but I don’t remember the black lights - in my memory it was a daytime bombing run. OTOH, I was certainly less than 10.
K0balt 2y ago
Reminds me of the mechanical flight simulators and other military simulators that were in use in the 60s and 70s.
- rbanffy 2y ago
  Small cameras moving on top of a (wall sized) miniature city (or lunar surface). Definitely fun to watch.
bitwize 2y ago
Recently I discovered Sea Wolf, an arcade video game by Midway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBu5fGKKpE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBu5fGKKpE Sea Wolf was an electronic update to Midway's electromechanical game Sea Devil, which in turn was inspired by Sega's Periscope, which itself competed with Torpedo Launcher, a similar game that was the first designed by Masaya Nakamura, founder of the NAkamura Manufacturing COmpany -- later, Namco. Sea Wolf preserves some of the "practical effects" of its predecessors, despite being a microprocessor-based game with a video screen. Aiming and firing is done with a swivelable periscope that has a piece of reflective glass in it and a sight painted on for aiming. Explosions are indicated by lights which are reflected off the glass; reflected lights also indicate how many torpedoes you have left until you need to reload. For this reason, emulating Sea Wolf leaves a lot to be desired, even though the electronic bits are thoroughly emulated. My dad used to tell me about going to the fair in California and playing an arcade game where you assumed the role of a gunner in like a B-17. Film footage of fighter aircraft in pursuit would roll, and you had to shoot them down. When a hit was registered, it would somehow switch to footage of the enemy aircraft crashing and burning.
- mewse 2y ago
  From the description, I'm guessing that the game your father played was "Firefox", a 1983 laser disc game by Atari. The game synced dynamic computer graphics on top of pre-recorded laser disc background video. The "somehow switch to footage of the enemy aircraft crashing and burning" was, unsurprisingly, accomplished by simply jumping to a different track on the laserdisc, and typically happened when you completed one level and were about to begin the next. I've never played it myself, but the gameplay actually looks surprisingly similar to Atari's vector graphic "Star Wars" game. Or maybe not surprisingly once you notice that Firefox was created by the same team who had made that Star Wars arcade game the year before, and would go on to make the also-similar Empire Strikes Back arcade game the following year. I guess if you've got a winning formula, don't mess with it too much! I remember once standing at a booth at the MacWorld Expo looking up at the massive display of a newly released game "Jump Raven" in which you were tasked with flying a hovercraft through city streets, shooting baddies, and all that usual video game stuff. I commented to the random guy standing next to me, "It looks a bit like Apache Strike, doesn't it?", referring to an old helicopter sim from like eight years earlier which had used a very similar viewpoint and game mechanics, albeit with only fairly primitive black and white graphics. And that random guy standing next to me turned and said, "I'm allowed to plagiarize from myself". Oops! (Sorry, Bill, I hadn't realised you were the programmer on Jump Raven too!) :D
Animats 2y ago
That's a rip-off of International Mutoscope Corporation's "Atomic Bomber" of 1946.[1][2] Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk used to have one in their arcade. [1] https://www.arcade-museum.com/Arcade/atomic-bomber https://www.arcade-museum.com/Arcade/atomic-bomber [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGL9G9y_yiI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGL9G9y_yiI
NikkiA 2y ago
There was also 'Sega Helishooter' from 1977, which was the first arcade game I played, it seemed a step backward to see the graphics of Space Invaders a year later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YedSuvlFElo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YedSuvlFElo
- smusamashah 2y ago
  Was recommend Kasco Star V (1975) after watching this video. This has a rotating sphere inside for a map and moving arm with a lens. https://youtu.be/LekFvp7dByY https://youtu.be/LekFvp7dByY
anfractuosity 2y ago
Very cool, reminds me a bit of two Tom Scott videos (these ones do use displays though, but combined with little model worlds) * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQifPHcMLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQifPHcMLE - 1970s tank simulator drives through a tiny world * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMlHDnbEIDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMlHDnbEIDA - Submarine simulator
almost 2y ago
If you find the idea of electromechanical arcade games delightful (and why wouldn’t you?) and you’re in London then I’d highly recommend visiting Tim Hunkin’s Novelty Automation Arcade (https://www.novelty-automation.com/ https://www.novelty-automation.com/). They’re all hand made with a satirical sense of humour, just so much fun to see and play with. And check out Tim Hunkin’s YouTube channel for his Secret Life Of Arcade Machines series where he shows you how they work (https://youtube.com/@timhunkin1?si=fwjrx87fUwNAFJ29 https://youtube.com/@timhunkin1?si=fwjrx87fUwNAFJ29). and while you’re there his Secret Life Of Components and his classic Secret Life of Machines (his BBC TV series from the late 80s) are worth a watch too.
alamortsubite 2y ago
Sega released another electromechanical stand-up, "Killer Shark," at about the same, and apparently using the same technology. Its cameo in Spielberg's Jaws fascinated me as much as anything else in that movie when I was a kid. There's a great write-up, including video of gameplay, here: https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/15694/jaws-arcade-video-game-killer-shark-atari-sega-electromechanical/ https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/15694/jaws-arcade-vid...
baruchthescribe 2y ago
Santa Cruz beachfront had one of these back in the mid 90s. Durban beachfront had one in the 70s.
wang_li 2y ago
The game looks neat and I would have been entranced by it back in the day, but I don’t think the writer knows the meaning of “flight simulator”, “first person shooter”, or “open world.”
cjbprime 2y ago
I was following the explanation up until: > This closed the aforementioned circuit, but only if the trigger was currently being pressed. As a result, the light in that zone would flare right as the target passed over it. The sound effect would also be triggered, plus five points would be added to the player's score. How did they keep a score?

136 points by geox 2y ago

I thought there was another 70's screen-free arcade game discussed on HN in the past year, but I've failed to pull it up. At first I thought this article must be about the same thing. Can you help me remember?

jaredhallen 2y ago
I remember something about a home game that involved dropping bombs. Can't recall the name though.
- UncleSlacky 2y ago
  Maybe "Chutes Away"? https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5790/chutes-away https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5790/chutes-away (from this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40740616 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40740616)
hcs 2y ago
About one year ago was a little discussion of the much older Nimatron, maybe? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36856755 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36856755

Loughla 2y ago

2 things. 1. That is an amazing design and amazing engineering. I legitimately am astounded by the creativity and thought that went into that. 2. The writing style where the author feels the need to apologize for anything even remotely technical (like: Once again, just bear with us for a bit) comes across as either childish or condescending. What purpose does that serve? Anyone clicking a link about an old arcade game with no computer or screen obviously wants to know how it works. Why write like that?

ownedthx 2y ago
It’s writing colloquially… the writer has the difficult job of describing something that’s happening inside this cabinet over time and space and other dimensions Imposed by the game and players behavior. Bear with us means, ‘I’m about to do a bunch of description… shore up your mental banks and prepare to reread the next bit a few times. Man
reaperducer 2y ago
2 things You did the exact same thing that the author of the article did, then criticized him for it?

ramses0 2y ago

Visit "Musée Méchanique" if this tickles your fancy! https://museemecanique.com/ https://museemecanique.com/

zikduruqe 2y ago
Yep. If you do anything touristy down the area, this is the place to go.

tomcam 2y ago

Great game. It was always broken.

rbanffy 2y ago
I remember playing it, but I don’t remember the black lights - in my memory it was a daytime bombing run. OTOH, I was certainly less than 10.

K0balt 2y ago

Reminds me of the mechanical flight simulators and other military simulators that were in use in the 60s and 70s.

rbanffy 2y ago
Small cameras moving on top of a (wall sized) miniature city (or lunar surface). Definitely fun to watch.

bitwize 2y ago

Recently I discovered Sea Wolf, an arcade video game by Midway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBu5fGKKpE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJBu5fGKKpE Sea Wolf was an electronic update to Midway's electromechanical game Sea Devil, which in turn was inspired by Sega's Periscope, which itself competed with Torpedo Launcher, a similar game that was the first designed by Masaya Nakamura, founder of the NAkamura Manufacturing COmpany -- later, Namco. Sea Wolf preserves some of the "practical effects" of its predecessors, despite being a microprocessor-based game with a video screen. Aiming and firing is done with a swivelable periscope that has a piece of reflective glass in it and a sight painted on for aiming. Explosions are indicated by lights which are reflected off the glass; reflected lights also indicate how many torpedoes you have left until you need to reload. For this reason, emulating Sea Wolf leaves a lot to be desired, even though the electronic bits are thoroughly emulated. My dad used to tell me about going to the fair in California and playing an arcade game where you assumed the role of a gunner in like a B-17. Film footage of fighter aircraft in pursuit would roll, and you had to shoot them down. When a hit was registered, it would somehow switch to footage of the enemy aircraft crashing and burning.

mewse 2y ago
From the description, I'm guessing that the game your father played was "Firefox", a 1983 laser disc game by Atari. The game synced dynamic computer graphics on top of pre-recorded laser disc background video. The "somehow switch to footage of the enemy aircraft crashing and burning" was, unsurprisingly, accomplished by simply jumping to a different track on the laserdisc, and typically happened when you completed one level and were about to begin the next. I've never played it myself, but the gameplay actually looks surprisingly similar to Atari's vector graphic "Star Wars" game. Or maybe not surprisingly once you notice that Firefox was created by the same team who had made that Star Wars arcade game the year before, and would go on to make the also-similar Empire Strikes Back arcade game the following year. I guess if you've got a winning formula, don't mess with it too much! I remember once standing at a booth at the MacWorld Expo looking up at the massive display of a newly released game "Jump Raven" in which you were tasked with flying a hovercraft through city streets, shooting baddies, and all that usual video game stuff. I commented to the random guy standing next to me, "It looks a bit like Apache Strike, doesn't it?", referring to an old helicopter sim from like eight years earlier which had used a very similar viewpoint and game mechanics, albeit with only fairly primitive black and white graphics. And that random guy standing next to me turned and said, "I'm allowed to plagiarize from myself". Oops! (Sorry, Bill, I hadn't realised you were the programmer on Jump Raven too!) :D

Animats 2y ago

That's a rip-off of International Mutoscope Corporation's "Atomic Bomber" of 1946.[1][2] Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk used to have one in their arcade. [1] https://www.arcade-museum.com/Arcade/atomic-bomber https://www.arcade-museum.com/Arcade/atomic-bomber [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGL9G9y_yiI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGL9G9y_yiI

NikkiA 2y ago

There was also 'Sega Helishooter' from 1977, which was the first arcade game I played, it seemed a step backward to see the graphics of Space Invaders a year later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YedSuvlFElo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YedSuvlFElo

smusamashah 2y ago
Was recommend Kasco Star V (1975) after watching this video. This has a rotating sphere inside for a map and moving arm with a lens. https://youtu.be/LekFvp7dByY https://youtu.be/LekFvp7dByY

anfractuosity 2y ago

Very cool, reminds me a bit of two Tom Scott videos (these ones do use displays though, but combined with little model worlds) * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQifPHcMLE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcQifPHcMLE - 1970s tank simulator drives through a tiny world * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMlHDnbEIDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMlHDnbEIDA - Submarine simulator

almost 2y ago

If you find the idea of electromechanical arcade games delightful (and why wouldn’t you?) and you’re in London then I’d highly recommend visiting Tim Hunkin’s Novelty Automation Arcade (https://www.novelty-automation.com/ https://www.novelty-automation.com/). They’re all hand made with a satirical sense of humour, just so much fun to see and play with. And check out Tim Hunkin’s YouTube channel for his Secret Life Of Arcade Machines series where he shows you how they work (https://youtube.com/@timhunkin1?si=fwjrx87fUwNAFJ29 https://youtube.com/@timhunkin1?si=fwjrx87fUwNAFJ29). and while you’re there his Secret Life Of Components and his classic Secret Life of Machines (his BBC TV series from the late 80s) are worth a watch too.

alamortsubite 2y ago

Sega released another electromechanical stand-up, "Killer Shark," at about the same, and apparently using the same technology. Its cameo in Spielberg's Jaws fascinated me as much as anything else in that movie when I was a kid. There's a great write-up, including video of gameplay, here: https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/15694/jaws-arcade-video-game-killer-shark-atari-sega-electromechanical/ https://www.remindmagazine.com/article/15694/jaws-arcade-vid...

baruchthescribe 2y ago

Santa Cruz beachfront had one of these back in the mid 90s. Durban beachfront had one in the 70s.

wang_li 2y ago

The game looks neat and I would have been entranced by it back in the day, but I don’t think the writer knows the meaning of “flight simulator”, “first person shooter”, or “open world.”

cjbprime 2y ago

I was following the explanation up until: > This closed the aforementioned circuit, but only if the trigger was currently being pressed. As a result, the light in that zone would flare right as the target passed over it. The sound effect would also be triggered, plus five points would be added to the player's score. How did they keep a score?