The Adventures of Captain Something in Space Whatever!

April 26, 2006 12:16 PM

Anyone remember the name of this classic arcade game?

Each level started with a "Lunar Lander" type stage. The first stage was super easy, it just floated down onto the pad. Other levels you had to maneuver, and if you hit rocks, you lost a guy. After a successful landing, you would enter a maze which you had to navigate.

The graphics were line-based, not pixels (I guess this means it was a vector display).

The controller was a paddle, and there may not have even been any buttons. I think you lost a guy if you did not make it out of the maze in time, but you could pick up oxygen along the way to extend your time. On some stages you could pick up boots which reversed gravity, which made the maze simpler to navigate.

I used to play this in The Disc Shoppe in Mazza Gallery in the 1980's, if that helps.

My feeling is that is was "Captain Something" or "Space Whatever."

posted by mzurer to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

I think it might have been Alpha One. I'm looking for a link.
posted by Malor at 12:22 PM on April 26, 2006

Here it is, on a very, very slow site. Is this the one you were looking for?
posted by Malor at 12:23 PM on April 26, 2006

Space invaders? You can relive it here.
posted by generic230 at 12:23 PM on April 26, 2006

Lunar Lander perhaps?
posted by alan at 12:23 PM on April 26, 2006

Looks like it was actually released under the name Major Havoc, btw... the Alpha One was a prototype.
posted by Malor at 12:25 PM on April 26, 2006

Killer List of Video Games has an awesome database of games, plus their descriptions. Looking at the one for Alpha 1, it doesn't looks like exactly what he was talking about..

It's a starting point, anyway.
posted by Laen at 12:25 PM on April 26, 2006

Well, it's vector, it has a dial control, it has a landing sequence, and a guy running around in a maze.... I dunno what else it could be. :)
posted by Malor at 12:30 PM on April 26, 2006

Major Havoc
posted by Durhey at 12:33 PM on April 26, 2006

Definitely Major Havoc. Ate more of my quarters than I can ever hope to justify.
posted by grabbingsand at 1:22 PM on April 26, 2006

If you want to play it again, it's in the Atari Anthology for the XBox or PS2.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 6:07 PM on April 26, 2006