Warp & Warp
| Warp & Warp | |
|---|---|
|
U.S. arcade flyer for Warp Warp. | |
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, MSX, PV-1000, Family Computer |
| Release date(s) |
Arcade |
| Genre(s) | Multi-directional shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Cabinet | Upright, cabaret, and cocktail |
| Arcade system | Namco Warp & Warp |
| CPU | 1x Intel 8080 @ 2.048 MHz |
| Sound | 1x custom WSG @ 2.048 MHz |
| Display | Vertical orientation, Raster, 224 x 272 resolution |
Warp & Warp (ワープ & ワープ Wāpu to Wāpu) is a multi-directional shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1981 and licensed to the Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation for US manufacture and distribution as Warp Warp. The game was later ported to the MSX, and a sequel titled Warpman (ワープマン Wāpuman) was released for the Famicom in 1985 with additional features and improved graphics.
Gameplay
The player must take control of a "Monster Fighter", who must shoot tongue-sticking aliens named "Berobero" in the "Space World" without letting them touch him. If he kills three Berobero of the same colour in a row, a mystery alien will appear that can be killed for extra points. When the Warp Zone in the centre of the screen flashes (with the Katakana text ワープ (Wāpu) in the Japanese version or the English text "WARP" in the US versions), it is possible for the Monster Fighter to warp to the "Maze World", where the Berobero must be killed with time-delay bombs. The delay is controlled by how long the player holds the button down - but every time he kills one, his bombs will get stronger, making it easier for the Monster Fighter to blow himself up with his own bombs until he returns to Space World.
Powerups may appear on some levels, and allow the player to shoot exploding bullets or attach bombs directly onto enemy aliens. However, the exploding bullets present in Space World can only obtained in Maze World, and the powerup to attach bombs onto enemies in Maze World only appears in Space World. Players must alternate turns at the controls for the arcade version's multiplayer mode, but two players can play simultaneously in the Famicom version. The first player controls a white Warpman, and the second player controls an orange Warpman. Shooting the other player's Warpman during a multiplayer game causes him to become unable to move or fire, for a certain period of time.
Scoring
There are three aliens (called Berobero (ベロベロ) in the arcade version and Bemu (ベム) in the Famicom version), and killing three aliens of the same color causes a mystery alien to appear. There are three (four in the Famicom version) types of mystery aliens, the three original types of which are worth 500, 1000, or 2000 points respectively. The fourth type of mystery alien leaves one letter from the word "EXTRA" when it is killed, and an extra life is awarded if the player obtains all five letters. The points awarded for killing generic aliens differ depending on the area of the screen they were killed in, and their color changes in each of the three areas. Aliens killed near the center of the screen yield the highest amount of points (120) and those killed near the edges of it yield the lowest amount of points (60) while those killed near the area in between are worth 90 points. Killing multiple aliens with a single bomb in the Maze World is also worth 500 bonus points. In the arcade version, the high score is erased whenever the cabinet is reset or turned off, but in the Famicom version, the high score is kept even if the game is reset, but is erased when the console is turned off.
The round number is indicated by the flags in the bottom-right corner of the screen - but they stop updating after the 48th round (like in Namco's own Galaxian and King & Balloon), and the same number of flags is shown on all subsequent levels. Similarly, the indicator showing the number of lives remaining in the bottom-left corner stops updating after four lives, but the player can still gain extra lives to have more than five lives remaining in the game (until he reaches 1,000,000 points, when the score will roll over).
External links
- Warp & Warp at the Killer List of Videogames
- Warp & Warp at the Arcade History database