Let's Compare ( Gorf )

Video Locations:
Arcade 0:31
Atari 2600 3:30
BBC Micro 5:07
Commodore Vic20 6:46
Atari 800 XE/XL 8:15
Atari 5200 9:54
Colecovision 11:23
Commodore 64 13:01
Description Source:
en.wikipedia.or...
Gorf is an arcade game released in 1981 by Midway Mfg., whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It is a multiple-mission fixed shooter with five distinct modes of play, essentially making it five games in one. It is well known for its use of synthesized speech, a new feature at the time.
Gameplay
The player controls a spaceship that can move left, right, up and down around the lower third of the screen. The ship can fire a single shot (called a "quark laser" in this game), which travels vertically up the screen. Unlike similar games, where the player cannot fire again until his existing shot has disappeared, the player can choose to fire another shot at any time; if the previous shot is still on screen, it disappears.
Gorf consists of five distinct "missions", each with its own patterns of enemies. The central goal of each mission is to destroy all enemies in that wave, which takes the player to the next mission. Successfully completing all five missions will increase the player's rank and loop back to the first mission, where play continues on a higher difficulty level. The game continues until the player loses all their lives. The player can advance through the ranks of Space Cadet, Space Captain, Space Colonel, Space General, Space Warrior, and Space Avenger, with a higher difficulty level at each rank. Along the way, a robotic voice heckles and threatens the player, often calling the player by his current rank (for example, "Some galactic defender you are, Space Cadet!"). Some versions also display the player's current rank via a series of lit panels in the cabinet.
The missions are:
Astro Battles: The first mission is almost an exact clone of Space Invaders. This is the only mission that is not set in space, but rather against a sky-blue background. A small force of enemies (24 in Gorf vs. 55 in Space Invaders) attacks in the classic pattern set by the original game. The player is protected by a glittering parabolic force field that is gradually worn away by enemy fire. The force field switches off temporarily while the player's shots pass through it.
Laser Attack: In this mission, the player must battle two formations of five enemies each. Each formation contains three yellow enemies that attempt to dive-bomb the player, a white gun that fires a single laser beam, and a red miniature version of the Gorf robot.
Galaxians: This mission is a clone of Galaxian, with the key differences being the number of enemies (24 in Gorf vs. 46 in Galaxian) and the way the enemies fire. Gameplay is otherwise similar to the original game.
Space Warp: Mission 4 places the player in a sort of wormhole, where enemies fly outward from the center of the screen and attempt to either shoot down or collide with the player's ship. It is possible to shoot enemy shots in this level.
Flag Ship: The Flag Ship is protected by its own force field (similar to the one protecting the player in Mission 1), and it flies back and forth and fires at the player. To defeat it, the player must break through the force field and destroy the ship's core: if a different part of the ship is hit the player receives bonus points and the part breaks off and flies in a random direction, potentially posing a risk to the player's ship. If the player successful hits the Flag Ship's core, the Flag Ship explodes in a dramatic display, the player advances to the next rank, and play continues on Mission 1, with the difficulty increased.

[@vectrexrc237]

Colecovision always had great arcade conversions!

[@RandyWaage]

The ColecoVision port was one of my favorites. Enjoyed the music they added too. I had the Atari 2600 version too which was surprisingly good for that system too. :)

[@derrek_on_youtube]

I fell in love with this game when I had the ColecoVision version. Then I fell in love with the original arcade version.

[@markcarlyon1324]

Original Arcade Version: Nobody here has mentioned the unique Trigger-Stick controller. Set this game apart for its time. I think that this is the first appearance of this joystick. Later on it was used on other games such as Satan's Hollow and Tron. If I'm wrong, somebody let me know. This was among the first generation of arcade games in color: State of the art for 1980!!

[@Dagasm]

I used to play the Commodore 64 version a lot when I was young. *thumbs up*

[@emuunlim]

I loved the colecovision version!

[@gentlegiant6585]

I recieved a Colecovision for Christmas back in the in my high school senior year (1985). I was also given a Atari 2600 attachment (soo cool 😎) and a driving race wheel/gas/break pedal with shifter. It came with Pole position. Never had the Gorf game though whi h would have been awesome. Was ahead of it's time among the consoles of the day. Great fun.

[@databang]

As a young boy, VGV (video game victim) I remember the GORF arcade version annoyed me in a peevish way because it seemed like many sprite assets were lifted and recycled from Midway's prior successes, but in gauche and crude manner. Not only that, It also was a game that would talk occassionally when idle which I deemed as a taunt when I didn't have any quarters. thanks for the nostalgia!

[@seanwilkinson3975]

The VIC-20 had a superlative version of Gorf. And I've always had a soft spot for early multi-level space shooters like Gorf, Astro Blaster, Astro Fighter, Pleiades, Phoenix, Space Odyssey, Moon Cresta, etc.

[@Freddyfan1428]

Oh my... SO many hours spent playing this on the VIC-20. :-)

[@yaywhewclips242]

Oh jeez what a historical game 4 games in 1!!!! I loved this arcade game!

[@yaywhewclips242]

Oh yea the 2600 version, NO HAters! Pretty good game.

[@djGreenALERT]

I'll give you a thumbs up because this was one of my favourites to play in the arcades and it is great to see it again, but it was ever so painful to watch you play it the way you did.

[@thejackal007]

I'm glad you mentioned the Galaxians was removed. The version I had for the Atari 8000 didn't have that and I always wondered when I saw Gorf vids on KZbin why mine was missing that. Maybe I am biased, but I still think the Atari 800 was the best port.

[@skippyb.coyote895]

Great comparison! I loved the ColecoVision version of this game as a kid, though my old ColecoVision ended up getting lost to the sands of time and these days I only have the Atari 2600 version of GORF. But hey, even the 2600 version is great and surprisingly comparable to some of the more graphically advanced ports in terms of the fun factor.

[@axs203]

The sound is just menacing and makes you a bag of nerves what a good game it is

[@Quedron]

Colecovision all the way

[@koolkidd9193]

The Arcade version on a fully working original cabinet would be the only way I would play GORF again. The control and the digitized voice made it special. The other seven versions can't replicate it. I got a very high score in 1984 and never played it again.

[@skeggjoldgunnr3167]

I’ve got both the Atari jaguar cd version and Commodore 64 version with the magic voice module. My jaguar cd isn’t working any more. No galaxians stage on the C=64 but the magic voice module makes all the smack talking of the arcade original perfectly and that’s funny and fun. I was VERY impressed with most of these versions here. They all looked like that would be fun to play! Colecovision, in particular. That console makes 👍♥ for WONDERFUL collector stuff man.

[@dallase1]

Colecovision was the best version and then the C64.

[@GamingHistorySource]

Go You . space cadet. lol

[@TatsunoKonami]

The best version is the Vic 20 one, even better than the original arcade, period.

[@fragmentalstew]

Of the ports, visually colecovision looks best followed by c64, but I really like the sound of the vic 20.

[@paulpetroleum]

the first time a 'game' ever spoke to me....scared the shit out of me at the time

[@wingnut4427]

Ahhh ! Cool ! thanks for the info. This is why I love comments on these videos. There is so much more You can learn about any particular game or port. Great for research. :D It was a pleasure talking to you about this. :)

[@AutisticJoker88]

Fun fact: The late Dave Nutting (The dude who designed the Jeep Grand Wagoneer and the Enstrom Helicopter) worked on Gorf

[@LeonardCrassman]

Vic20 is best version.

[@DiscoScottie]

Sweet Jesus! Those Atari 8-bit Laser Attack dive bombers are on crack AND speed.

[@pittstopdiva77]

Nothing compares to the Colecovision version, not even the arcade version!

[@ArtificialExperience]

Commodore 64 was best version compared to arcade, no question. Loved that system!

[@Jay0321]

One version of this game was at Darrows Supermarket in Baraboo WI that I always played, had all the stuff including the rank pane on the side of the screen. The best was when we were on a family vacation down to Kansas, a truck stop called PJ's had a version that gave you 5 ships and it seemed to have a rapid fire setup, meaning that you could fire multiple shots across the whole screen, easier than the default.

[@PetersPianoShoppe]

Atari 800 kicks ass on this one; it captures the sfx and the intensity well. Interestingly most 5200 games were direct ports of 800 games, but the 5200 here is hampered by that awful joystick, which didn't give you the fine control needed to dodge lasers, etc.

[@BlaineC1972]

It was always satisfying to beat the flagship. Spent to many quarters on the original to like any of the ports.

[@leftintheoxafire]

I can say that the Commodore 64 version was pretty descent. It did had some good graphics, and good sounds too.

[@CaptainRufus]

Other than the C64 version none of them really capture the game. I had fond memories of playing Gorf on a friend's Coleco back in the day though.

[@3gdosrsfs]

Hi GHS, Gorf Here...the guy who coded the Jaguar version. Just a quick correction...Our Gorf Classic CD for Atari Jaguar does indeed include the 'Galaxians' Level. :^)

[@wingnut4427]

I know :) I guess the part where I said "due to copyright issues, the Galaxians mission was removed from all ports" was a bit confusing. Sorry about that. But I did state it was an arcade perfect port. :D Thanks for commenting & I would love to see the original CD. :D Wasn't it limited to 50 ?

[@litoskin]

Also Amiga has his gorf version ! in the amiga cd 32 the version is inside the compilation "assassins"

[@Jay0321]

This is one of my all time favorite games. I wanted to try to get a stand up arcade version for my house. I live in Wisconsin Dells and when I was a teenager, I would always want to put $7.00 worth of gas into the Fiat so we could get .25 cents back for paying with cash...this would enable me to run to "Galaxy of Games" and play GORF, Tron, Spy Hunter, Sinistar, Robotron or whatever while my mother would grocery shop at Zinke's.

[@3gdosrsfs]

No, it was 50 special editions with a white case and such. There were many more than that but we had to pull it when we found out that Midway still had some say in the matter. I was told by Jamie Fenton to go ahead and do it but she did say she was not 100% sure. I couldnot get ahold of Dave Nutting at the time and Midway did not contact me back till over a year later. They were willing to let me do it on Jaguar again but they wanted the source. We did not want to have to give that up.

[@loneshewolf74]

I didn't know until recently that GORF is supposed to be an acronym, I thought they had just spelled FROG backwards. Especially after seeing Kermit on Sesame Street as a kid, who had ordered a t-shirt with his name on it, and they kept giving him ones with the letters in "frog" mixed-up, including "gorf", and Kermit thinks the t-shirt-muppet misspelled it until a weird-looking muppet comes in and says, "Hi there, I'm Kermit the Gorf, is my t-shirt ready?" Well, *I* thought it was funny.

[@wingnut4427]

lol .. .damn !! All these years & I've never noticed that ! 0_0

[@yupeeter9411]

Space Warp is the best level. The Atari2600 version is pretty impressive, I must admit.

[@scarosone14]

Not counting the arcade the Colecovision looks and plays the best

[@darthkur]

It's a shame the guy that made the Jaguar CD version didn't have the balls to just do it instead of trying to be a goodie-goodie and deal with all of the CR shit. Fortunately these was a guy, also on the Atariage forums, that created a port for the GBA and it's amazing. He also, unlike Mr. Gorf of the Jag CD version, gave it away freely.

[@Omegaknuckles]

There was a version made for the Atari Jaguar as well, Several years after it was off the market, but still.

[@gleuszler]

Apparently, whoever programmed the BBC Micro version never played Space Invaders. In Space Invaders (and the equivalent Astro Battles in Gorf), all the aliens move in unison, not in alternating rows moving left and right, as in this version. In other words, all of the aliens move to the left or the right, all at once. When an alien reaches the extreme left or right of the screen, all aliens move down a row and they change direction. Aliens never move in both directions simultaneously!

[@Infinitrium]

Ahh, sorry then. Didn't see it listed in the video description

[@erikaoliveira8030]

Versioni i Vic 20 kur gorf prek armiqtë shpërthen dhe shpërthimi është muzika e tij e shëndoshë?

[@Lightblue2222]

From watching another play I noticed 5200 Gorf is actually full analog but would need an analog joystick or trakball to work. A thumbstick wouldnt really work either, too short range and forced centering. I'm talking Missile Command accuracy. Fast as the eye control. Maybe even better than a computer mouse.

[@Lightblue2222]

Tb303 channel has it. That's why it must be the best ver. Just like a computer mouse. Thumb sticks cant do that

[@Lightblue2222]

Just got .awesome game. Posting vids. Goin for record

[@ZombieRyushu]

The audio of the arcade version is hard to listen too, ear bleeding hard. Also the sky blue hurts your eyes. Seriously, they needed to refine this game more - like Gravitar, awesome concept, marginal execution.

[@erikaoliveira8030]

I found the collection crude, it even looks like the apple ii version

[@esathegreat]

No lasers for the Coleco and BBC Micro

[@Markis5150]

Atari 5200 had the best version. Commordore 64 was too easy,ruined port in my opinion. The 5200 is very challenging and looks great.

[@Jay0321]

Of course when you would run out of money, you would go by the machine and hit the stick and it would say "Hey you, insert coin". :)

[@sa3270]

I had the Commodore 64 version on cartridge.

[@scottbreon9448]

Without including the original arcade because that wouldn't be fair: I give the best ports of the game to the ColecoVision and C64 respectively. Kind of surprised that there was no MSX port.

[@scottbreon9448]

If I'm not mistaken, the BBC version wasn't an official port though. I believe it was actually unlicensed

[@scottbreon9448]

Peck Man Elite was good though, but then again, the game was developed on that computer

[@scottbreon9448]

Peck Man By the way, the Galaxians game he played in the Galaxian ports for the BBC, was the inferior port. The better game (which he missed) was a game called Arcadians by AcornSoft. But It was still pretty mediocre, but much better than than Superior Software version. If you want to play a shooter in the beeb, then FireTrack is hands down the best shooter on that system (it's a horizontal scrolling shooter) (aside from White Light, which was a homebrew that came out a few years back) Plus Arcadians also had joystick support, while the Superior Software game did not. That's a killer for me, especially since the Beeb didn't have the most user friendly keyboard controls for gaming.

[@DeevDaRabbit]

All of the ports are missing Galaxians.

[@JGreen-le8xx]

Sad when the lowly Vic20 looked drastically better than most of the others.

[@Jay0321]

Got you

[@marioghernandez4960]

Classic.

[@GamingHistorySource]

Coming Next week. Let's Compare ( Mappy )

[@scottbreon9448]

I'd love to see someone do a remake of this and add the Galaxians level

[@ninelivecat]

The ported versions of Gorf were never as good as the arcade version which had the Galaxians level due to licensing issues with Namco

[@tbb033]

" whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force"" That was a lie, it was merely Frog backwards

[@rynmaymay9309]

and Flog spelled backwards is Golf

[@nzrdb6]

Got to be arcade

[@wingnut4427]

it's in there. 6:46

[@3gdosrsfs]

Just look up Jaguar Gorf on KZbin to compare these with our Jag version.

[@wrestletube1]

If Galaxian's were removed from ports for copyrights why is Space Invaders, Tempest & whatever that SEGA one was with the swirling invaders still in there as well then?

[@scottbreon9448]

Because Namco were real bitches back then

[@praystation]

Got you, not go you, since that wouldn't make any sense.

[@jaynshaz2009]

Lol yup i think it did lol

[@toonsis]

the arcade version too so much of my money

[@blazecrespo1]

So Gorf was a compilation of all space shooters?

[@scottbreon9448]

All? There was no Galaga, Centipede or Asteroids levels

[@METAL1ON]

Who was playing the arcade version 🤣🤣🤣

[@ladetus]

Vice 20 my ass. Its clear as day its the original arcade version, and that comodore got it closest to that...

[@Infinitrium]

No VIC-20 version?

[@tomarnold8417]

Ok. So colecovision looked the best but the 5200 sounded the best. Also the final ship explosion in the 5200 version was much cooler. The rest were ok.

[@heavymetal801]

You must be on drugs to say that, colecovision version of GORF, it's way superior that the atari 2500 and any other atari. The graphics, visuals, sounds, explosions, details in the colecovision are much better, the colecovision sounded better, stop denying it man.

[@tomarnold8417]

@@heavymetal801 drugs! Nice one heavy metal. I’ll give you an example. Screen 2 colecovision doesn’t even give sound to the laser from the attacking ships. That was the entire mood of that screen. Atari 5200 sounds just like the arcade on this screen. Sorry. Everyone knows that the sound chips in the 5200 had more channels and capabilities than coleco.

[@heavymetal801]

@@tomarnold8417 the 5200 laser attack screen sounds awful, between the 5200 noise and the silence of the Colecovision, the silence it's better, you probably were an atari owner, that's why you comment in atari's favor, you're commenting with your atari t-shirt on, no impartiality. Colecovision games look and sound better than atari games, go and compare those games side by side (for example: carnival, donkey kong, frogger, etc), maybe atari won in sales back then, but in graphics and sound quality, Colecovision won.

[@tomarnold8417]

@@heavymetal801 I own both now and I had both when I was a kid. I returned my coleco because both joysticks controlled the same player and it left an imprint on our tv. Coleco has a nice library and I love their games but where the 5200 and coleco both had ports there are positive and negatives. I like coleco popeye but they don’t have three version of music like the 5200 port. I’m not a die hard like you. I also know what I’m taking about.

[@351cleavland]

The only way theAtari 2600 could be worse is if it was in black and white as opposed to glorious 4-color.

[@SP_Sour]

How did they not get sued for the third stage?! Or the first one for that matter?

[@metalcoola]

Too bad, that speech wasn`t include in BBC Micro version, as you could see in Repton series, BBC Micro was capable of that, oh well, guess it was too memory consuming

[@ecottonball]

Little known fact: The C64 version could "speak" with the optional speech module. I wrote the C64 port, btw.

[@davejohnduke]

wow if you like that you should checkout "pixel space wars" on the apple app store a 21st century update !

[@Kelspeed1972]

I must admit I got a little tight in the shorts when I seen the VIC 20 version.

[@fcon]

is there a version that you can actually hear speech in lmao

[@oldstylegaming4655]

What is he saying in the arcade version? All I understood was "space cadet"

[@tsntana]

0:32 Prepare yourself for annihilation, Space Cadet. 1:09 Bad Move, Space Cadet. 1:11 Robot warriors, seek and destroy the Space Cadet. 1:17 Ha ha ha ha 1:40 My Gorfian robots are unbeatable. 2:20 Gorfian robots! Attack, attack! 3:05 I am a Gorfian consciousness. 3:22 Nice shot. You have been promoted to Space Captain.

[@neontetra1000]

My mum was pro at this!, and Blitz and PacMan!.

[@RayWrightRayrite]

BBC micro version looked pretty lame. A laser attack with no lasers?

[@wingnut4427]

I looked for them. Couldn't locate them. :( sorry

[@Antiestablishment420]

Potato Aim

[@kevg3563]

You forgot the Amiga version.

[@MrHurtsgood]

The worst part for me is this is my favourite game of all time. And I can't play it.

[@firestickuser8171]

The M.A.M.E. version works but the rom voice doesn't.

[@TMS5100]

even for the 2600 this conversion is poor. coleco vision conversion is also disappointing.

[@3gdosrsfs]

Um.....you forgot the Atari Jaguar version.

[@GamingHistorySource]

+3gdosrsfs It wasn't forgotten. I couldn't attain it at the time. Look @ 0:17. I mentioned it's existence.

[@3gdosrsfs]

Ah...did not notice...my apologies. I could send you a vid if you like( if I still have it around) ;)

[@DappieKS80]

Huh frog backwards

[@HiDefJesus]

Colecovision wins.

[@wrestletube1]

It's maybe Space Wars or something like that but Laser Attack is a ripoff of it.

[@igorgustavo2649]

como fui parar aki?

[@MetalSonicodraco7342]

No nos interesa tu vida y si por "error" llegastes aqui

[@josepzin]

C64 best version!

[@jeffr23817]

I have NEVER heard of this game!!!! So for me it's like a ripoff of like 3 different games!!! If they came out before this game (but I'm pretty sure they didn't) I apologize... But like I said... "Gorf" is fricken new to me!

[@floydman6939]

Worst GORF player EVER!

[@supermariofan772003]

Interesting how this is one of the few classic arcade games designed by a (now) transgender woman. How times have changed, folks.