Do you remember this two-joystick arcade game?

November 14, 2007 8:12 AM

Help me remember that arcade-game-name filter...

Not sure if this one ever made it to any kind of home console, but I do remember pumping endless quarters into it at the local laundromat as a kid. For the life of me, I can't remember the name...

Details:

- This particular game had 2 (count em) joysticks, instead of a joystick and buttons. One joystick determined the direction your dude ran, the other determined the direction he fired his weapon in.

- The premise of the game was that you were a contestant in some futuristic game show where you ran around different rooms facing different obstacles (enemies) in a fight to stay alive and win cash (and prizes?).

- The aspect was that you were looking directly down at (i.e. from overhead) the given room your little dude was in at the time.

That's about all I got. Oh, except for that this had to be sometime in the 1985-1992 range, I'm guessing.

Super bonus points if you can find somewhere online that I can play it...

posted by allkindsoftime to sports, hobbies, & recreation (12 comments total)

Smash TV.
posted by ferociouskitty at 8:13 AM on November 14, 2007

Smash TV. Don't know where you can play it online, but it's on XBox Live Arcade, and on the Midway Arcade Treasures collection for PC and all three of the previous-gen systems.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 8:14 AM on November 14, 2007

If you like this control layout, you'd also like Robotron.
posted by cosmicbandito at 8:24 AM on November 14, 2007

As senor bandito pointed out, Smash TV was the product of Robotron 2084's designer, Eugene Jarvis, with the same control scheme.

Robotron 2084 online.
posted by rokusan at 8:27 AM on November 14, 2007

They have it at BarCade in Williamsburg, I believe.
posted by hermitosis at 9:08 AM on November 14, 2007

@hermitosis: I think they used to, but they didn't when I was there a few days ago. The Star Wars is finally fixed, though!

Anyway, I don't think he's going to fly in from South Africa to play it.
posted by atomly at 9:10 AM on November 14, 2007

Wow - somewhere I can still play it for quarters? That's super-super bonus points.

(I'm actually back in NYC after Christmas...I think I might have to check for myself...just to be sure).
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:18 AM on November 14, 2007

It might also be Total Carnage which was kind of a sequel.
posted by jefftang at 9:20 AM on November 14, 2007

Released for SNES in North America. Available for MAME if you have a license for the ROM, etc.
posted by infinitewindow at 9:45 AM on November 14, 2007

How is it played on a console, where you obviously don't have two joysticks?
posted by Ian A.T. at 11:10 AM on November 15, 2007

SNES had a directional pad on the left and 4 buttons on the right, which were angled so that they roughly resembled up, down, left, and right...remember?
posted by allkindsoftime at 1:27 AM on November 19, 2007

Yeah, I assumed that's how it was done, it just seemed, uh, inelegant. That is, replacing the 360 degree range of fire with four basic directions.
posted by Ian A.T. at 6:01 PM on November 19, 2007