Xevious

Xevious takes place on Earth. An invading alien race has set up shop, and it's up to the player to send 'em home. The game has a large number of different ground and air-based targets of either belligerent or non-belliegerent nature. In addition to the jumper-based difficulty levels, the game also adapts its difficulty to the player. If the player is successful against a type of attacker, an even deadlier type of attacker shows up to challenge the player.

There are structures called "Sol Citadels" hidden throughout the game. The targeting sight will briefly flash red whenever it is over one of these structures. Dropping a bomb at that spot will first uncover the silo-like object (worth 1000 points) and dropping another bomb on it will award another 1000 points.

There are also four special flags hidden at certain points in the game. Uncovering and flying over a special flag will award an extra life. The targeting sight will not flash when it is over a hidden flag.

Xevious actually consists of 16 areas even though there is no on-screen indication of the zone the player is currrently in. The areas are separated by a green forested section. Each time a life has been lost, the player ship starts at the beginning of the nearest area, either forwards or backwards in the terrain.

After area 16, the game cycles back to area 7. The special flags are in areas 1, 3, 5, and 7. The first mothership appears in area 4, the second in area 9, the third and fourth in area 14.

The theme music from Xevious was used during certain segments of the video arcade game-based television game show Starcade.

Atari actually produced a TV commercial, specifically for Xevious. They touted it as "The Atari game you cannot play at home." This may have been the first TV commercial for an arcade video game.

LICENSOR: Namco
SPINOFF: Grobda

The game uses three Z80 microprocessors and a Namco 3-channel PSG for sounds. The original Namco boardset uses the "Namco Galaga" pinout while the Atari boardset has a unique pinout.