Battlezone (1980 video game)

For articles with similar titles, see Battle zone (disambiguation).
Battlezone
Arcade poster
Developer(s)Atari, Inc.
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)
  • Ed Rotberg
  • Owen Rubin
  • Roger Hector
Programmer(s)Ed Rotberg
Morgan Hoff
Composer(s)Jed Margolin
Platform(s)Arcade, Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari 2600, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC, VIC-20, ZX Spectrum
ReleaseArcade
Atari 2600
C64, VIC-20
Atari 8-bit
1987[6]
Genre(s)Vehicular combat
First-person shooter[7][8][9]
Mode(s)Single-player

Battlezone is a first-person shooter tank combat game released for arcades in November 1980 by Atari, Inc. The player controls a tank which is attacked by other tanks and missiles. Using a small radar scanner along with the terrain window, the player can locate enemies and obstacles around them in the barren landscape. Its innovative use of 3D graphics made it a huge hit, with approximately 15,000 cabinets sold.

With its use of three-dimensional vector graphics, the game is considered to be the first true 3D arcade game with a first-person perspective,[10] the "first big 3D success" in the video game industry,[11] and the first successful first-person shooter video game in particular, making it a milestone for first-person shooter games.[10]

The game was primarily designed by Ed Rotberg, who was mainly inspired by Atari's top-down shooter game Tank (1974). Battlezone was distributed in Japan by Sega and Taito in 1981. The system was based on vector hardware designed by Howard Delman which was introduced in Lunar Lander and saw success with Asteroids. The 3D hardware that drove the program saw use in following games, including Red Baron, released in 1981.[12]

  1. ^ a b "Video Game Flyers: Battlezone, Atari, Inc. (Germany)". The Arcade Flyer Archive. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  2. ^ "Production Numbers" (PDF). Atari. 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 19 March 2012.
  3. ^ "Atari Introduces 'Battlezone' Combat Challenge Game To Test Skill, Wits" (PDF). Cash Box. November 8, 1980. p. 36.
  4. ^ a b "BATTLE ZONE". Media Arts Database (in Japanese). Agency for Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  5. ^ "Year-End Index" (PDF). Computer Entertainer. Vol. 3, no. 10. January 1985. p. 156.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference mania was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Dalton, Andrew (December 15, 2016). "'Battlezone' Classic Mode fulfills the promise of '80s VR". Engadget. Retrieved September 23, 2017. It's been 36 years since Atari released Battlezone and effectively created the first-person shooter in the process.
  8. ^ Staff (May 1, 2017). "A 43-year history of first-person shooters - from Maze War to Destiny 2". GamesRadar. Retrieved September 23, 2017. 1980s: First-person-shooters become commercialised: Battlezone gives life to the FPS.
  9. ^ Walker, Alex (October 26, 2012). "Evolution of the First Person Shooter". ABC News. Retrieved September 23, 2017. But the one game that many Generation X'ers will identify with when it comes to first-person shooters belongs to Atari and the green, wire-frame worlds within Battlezone.
  10. ^ a b Hanson 2021, p. 104.
  11. ^ "The evolution of 3D games". Tech Radar. 2010-07-11. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  12. ^ Wolf 2008, p. 68.