Quasar

Quasar is a vertical space shooter game developed and released by Zaccaria in 1980. Zaccaria was an Italian-owned company that produced coin-operated arcade games between the years 1977 to 1990. The company operated from Bologna while it existed, and created popular arcade titles such as The Invaders, PuckMan Astro Wars, Scramble, Fantasy, and Space Pirate.

Quasar is a space-themed shooter arcade game that features a space pod, controlled by a player and waves of alien ships which the player must fight against. The space pod controlled by the player is positioned at the bottom part of the screen. It also has a weapon system that allows it to shoot double projectiles at the same time. The first wave of alien ships are in form of flying saucers. These ships emerge from the top of the screen in an attempt to crash into the player’s ship. Saucer ships do not fire guns until they are close to the player’s ship and that is the best time to eliminate them. At some point in this round, the player’s ship leaves its station and slowly rise to the top of the screen. This poses a threat to the ship as saucer ship can now attack from the bottom. Flying saucer ships are 8 in the first round and they are worth 20 points each when they are destroyed.

In the second round, player can move their ship all around the screen. There are two types of alien ships and they appear from both sides of the screen. These alien ships are worth 30 points each when they are hit. Also, a player has a limited amount of missiles they can fire in this round, and it is displayed on the screen. Each time the weapon system is used, the number decreases. Once player exhausts their missiles without clearing all alien ships, their space pod explodes and they have to start the second round from the beginning. If player clears the screen with missiles left in their ship, the remains of the missiles are summed up and added to their score.

The third round can be considered as the boss level. A huge star called ‘Nova” appears at the top of the screen and it emits light beams in the player’s direction. However, player has to keep their ship within the light beam so as to take cover from a wave of meteorites that can destroy the ship. Player has to make sure the light beam stays on for protection and if they leave the light beam, the ship is pulled back to cover. Also, the player has to reach the star before time runs out in this round. If the star dies, the player’s ship explodes immediately and they will have to start the game from the first round. If a meteorite crashes into the ship, it explodes and player has to start the third round from the beginning.

The most complex round is the fourth round. The player’s space pod is positioned at the centre of the screen and alien ships attacks from all sides of the screen. Player’s ship is vulnerable so they have to make use of their unlimited weapons system to ward off assaulting ships. If any of the assaulting enemy ships crash into player’s ship, the ship will explode and they will have to start the fourth round from the beginning. Alien ships are worth 100 points each in this round. After all ships in the fourth round are cleared, the game ends.