International Arcade Museum® - Killer List of Videogames®
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Museum of the Game® International Arcade Museum® - Killer List of Videogames® |
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Gorf
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Name: Gorf Developer: Midway Manufacturing Co. Year: 1981 Type: Videogame Class: Wide Release
Game Specific: Gorf Pinout Settings: Gorf Dipswitch Settings Number of Simultaneous Players: 1
Sound: Unamplified Mono (requires one-channel amp)
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 Photo contributed by: Joshua Glover
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Gorf DescriptionThe player controls a spaceship that must blast its way through five missions, each a different challenge. The game features a pistol grip joystick and robotic speech synthesis that heckles the player during gameplay.Gorf was produced by Midway Manufacturing Co. in 1981. Midway Manufacturing Co. released 133 different machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1959. Other machines made by Midway Manufacturing Co. during the time period Gorf was produced include Bosconian, Kick, Kick-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man Plus, Li'l Hoop Shot!, Extra Bases, Space Encounters, Space Invaders II, and Rally-X. Gorf - KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.61 (19 votes)
Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, "Like" carries a little more weight than the other factors. Log in to rate this game! Cabinet InformationIn addition to the standard sideart and marquee, IGorfI also has a lit, bottom decorative header, much like a marquee. This is located below the control panel. Unfortunately, the control panel was metal with screened on paint which tends to wear off.PTo the right of the screen, the players Space Rank is displayed by a bulb that lights up the appropriate box. As well, the area directly above the screen in backlit. Gorf has a total of five light bulbs for the marquee, and six for the rank display.PThe instructions and graphics on the control panel are not your typical control panel overlay. Instead, they are printed directly onto the metal of the panel. The result is that the graphics will erode and wear with use.Cabinet Style Weights and Measures
Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter EggsOn the Astro Battles screen, the last two invaders can be slowed down to a crawl if you fire like crazy.On the Laser Attack screen, if you shoot all the enemy ships except for the laser shooters, you can sit forever on the far left hand side of the screen. There were two ROM versions, and this trick only works on the first version. Game IntroductionThe player's goal is to defeat the Gorfian Empire in five separate missions. The first mission is like Space Invaders. The second mission pits the player against two squads of diving ships, each squad has a special ship that fires long laser beams. The third mission is like Galaxian. The fourth mission has the player fight a number of enemies that spiral toward the player shooting fireballs. The fifth mission has the player fight the Gorfian Flagship. The Flagship's shields must first be battered down, then the player must hit the Flagship in a tiny exhaust port in order to destroy it. The game then continues by sending the player through the missions again, which are harder than before. Each time the player destroys the Flagship, the player advances in rank. Starting out as a Space Cadet, the player moves on to Space Captain, Space Colonel, Space General, Space Warrior, and finally Space Avenger. The player's spaceship is equipped with a Quark Laser. This allows the player to cancel a poorly aimed shot and fire another shot. Game allowed player to start with double the amount of normal ships with the deposit of two credits instead of one.Game PlayGameplay is pseudo-alternating. Gameplay alternates when a player has successfully completed a mission. Play is then transferred to other player. If player does not complete mission, player continues playing until mission is completed or out of ships.MiscellaneousThis game was designed by Jay Fenton.VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Gorf CensusThere are 12,007 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,523 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 161,736 machines (6,804 unique titles).Very Common - There are approximately 495 known instances of this machine presumably owned by our current and past members. More are likely owned by non-members. 197 of these machines are owned by our active Gorf collectors. And of these, 177 are original dedicated machines, 1 is a conversion in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 19 are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired. For Sale - There are 8 active VAPS members with Gorf machines for sale. There is one active VAPS member with an extra Gorf circuit board for sale. There is 3 active members that has listed parts for this game for sale. Additional parts may be found on our message forums. Wanted - Popular - There are 13 active VAPS members currently looking for Gorf. This game ranks a 80 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records. This game ranks a 40 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often wanted, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.
TechnicalOnly the game logic and RAMROM boards are specific to IGorfI. The pattern board, cpu board, and RAM boards can be swapped out with other similar games, such as IWizard Of WorI.P As bulbs burn out, only replace them with low wattage replacements. A wise move may be to replace them with flourescent lights that have standard bulb sockets. Flourescent lights will last longer which makes bulb changes less frequent, produce less heat which causes less damage to the marquees, and consumes less electricity which lowers you energy bill.TriviaGorf was such a popular game that it was ported to most of the home console systems and personal computers of the time. One note about these ports was that the third Galaxian mission was removed due to licensing difficulties.GORF is actually an acronym for Galactic Orbiting Robot Force according to an early flyer. "Gorf was in fact named for "frog" backwards, but why? "Frog" was Jay Fenton's nickname." -Brett Bilbrey, Ex of Action Graphics, printed in Slap Dash issue 8, May 1999. Manuals
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eBay ListingsClick to search eBay for Gorf Videogame machines and related items.Click to search eBay for Midway Manufacturing Co. for machines and parts. Check out the IAM/KLOV report of the hottest coin-op machine auctions, powered by Ace.com.
|   Photo contributed by: Todd Tuckey  Photo contributed by: Todd Tuckey
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