Vindicators (video game)
A 1988 arcade tank shooter with fuel management and shop upgrades.
Vindicators, a 1988 arcade multidirectional shooter from Atari Games, lets one or two players drive tanks through scrolling levels. Tengen ported it to home computers and the NES, the latter using a special chip to get around Nintendo's lockout. A completed Apple IIGS port and an Atari Lynx version were both scrapped. A sequel, Vindicators Part II, followed in arcades.
Quick Facts
- Publisher
- Atari Games
- Ports
- Tengen
- Designer
- Kelly Turner; Norm Avellar
- Platforms
- Arcade
- Commodore 64
- ZX Spectrum
- NES
- Amiga
- Atari ST
- Amstrad CPC
- Genre
- Multidirectional shooter
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The game begins by asking the player(s) to choose a difficulty level. Higher difficulties make enemies stronger and players weaker, start players in later galaxies, and grant some powerups; the easiest difficulty starts in the first level with no bonuses. The player controls a tank with constantly draining fuel and must navigate multiple levels (14 stations in the arcade version) from bottom to top, encountering obstacles and enemies. Powerups include tank fuel, stars (currency), shields, smart shots (homing missiles), and bombs (powerful rockets). Each level has a key that opens a door at the top, leading either to the next level or to a special hub with multiple powerups that must be escaped in 10 seconds or less (15 for the NES version, though the timer stays stuck at 10 for five seconds before counting). Failure to escape costs half the tank's fuel. Occasionally a boss appears; normal shots are ineffective, so the player must decide when to buy sub-weapons to raise the chance of victory. Between levels, a shop allows purchase of items and upgrades with stars. Damage reduces shield level; buying a shield drastically reduces damage to a pixel of fuel per hit. When fuel depletes, tank speed drops to a crawl and a 10-second countdown begins; if no fuel is gained or the tank is shot, it explodes and a life is lost. The arcade version had special two-joystick controls and three contest levels, each with one contest star. With three contest stars and nine normal stars, the player could compete in a time-limited contest level to win a T-shirt. A later version removed the contest levels and stars.
Legacy
That same year, a follow-up called Vindicators Part II appeared as a conversion kit for Gauntlet, with only around 400 copies produced. The gameplay stays almost identical to the original, retaining ten of the fourteen stations and the same graphics, music, and sound effects. The voice-over was swapped for a less robotic male narrator, and new tank upgrades were introduced as power-ups that vanish after completing a level. This sequel later appeared in the 2012 collection Midway Arcade Origins for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
More in Shoot 'em Ups of the 1980s
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