Battlezone is a 1980 video game where players control a tank in a first-person shooter style. Atari, Inc. created and sold the game for arcade machines. In Japan, Sega and Taito helped distribute the game. The player controls a tank that is attacked by other tanks and missiles. Using a small radar scanner and a terrain window, the player can find enemies and obstacles in the empty landscape. The game used 3D graphics in a new way, which made it very popular. About 15,000 arcade machines of the game were sold.
The game used three-dimensional vector graphics, which are images made of lines and shapes. It is considered the first true 3D arcade game with a first-person view and the first successful first-person shooter game. This made it an important step in the history of first-person shooter games.
Ed Rotberg mainly designed the game. He was inspired by a top-down shooter game called Tank (1974). The system used vector hardware created by Wendi Allen. This hardware was first used in the game Lunar Lander and later in Asteroids. The 3D hardware used in Battlezone was also used in future games, such as Red Baron (1981).
Gameplay
The game uses simple line drawings shown on a black and white screen. A green tint covers most of the screen where the action happens, and a red tint covers the top part where the score and radar are shown.
The player controls a tank using two joysticks. One joystick controls the right side of the tank, and the other controls the left side. Moving the joysticks in the same direction makes the tank move forward or backward. Moving them in opposite directions makes the tank turn. Moving one joystick while keeping the other still makes the tank move and turn slowly. The right joystick has a button on top that fires the tank’s gun in the direction the tank is facing.
The game takes place on a flat surface with a distant mountain range, an erupting volcano, and a crescent-shaped moon. Simple line drawings of shapes like pyramids and blocks appear as obstacles. These obstacles cannot be destroyed and can block the tank’s movement and shots. Players must use the radar at the top of the screen to find enemies, as enemies can appear anywhere, even off-screen.
Three types of enemies appear during the game. At the start, slow-moving tanks are the main enemies and are easy to hit. Later, faster missiles replace the tanks and are harder to hit. At higher levels, even faster supertanks appear. These supertanks are harder to hit and attack more aggressively.
Sometimes, UFOs shaped like saucers appear. They make a loud sound to signal their arrival. UFOs do not show up on the radar and do not attack the player. Players can shoot them for extra points. UFOs are the only objects that can appear when other enemies are already on the screen.
If a player reaches 100,000 points and meets certain conditions, the next supertank that appears will not attack. Instead, it will retreat. If the player achieves this, a tank icon will appear on the right side of the high score list.
Cabinet
Battlezone is placed in an upright, full-sized arcade cabinet with a "periscope" viewfinder. The viewfinder limited the player's view so it looked like a scope. Spectators can see the game action from the sides of the viewfinder. The periscope viewfinder is similar to earlier submarine shooting arcade games, including Midway's Sea Wolf (1976) and Sega's Periscope (1966). A later version of the cabinet removed the periscope and raised the monitor to a more standard position to improve visibility for people watching and make it easier for players who could not reach the periscope. A smaller, "cabaret" version of the cabinet has the screen tilted upward and no periscope.
The large controller handles were based on earlier gear-shift controllers used in racing games. They were changed to have a new stick shape with internal ribs to make them stronger and added rubber centering parts. The right stick has a raised fire button with an LED light on top. The controls also include a similar LED start button on the cabinet. There were two speakers, one above and one below the 19-inch monitor.
Development
After the success of Cinematronics vector graphics games, Atari's Grass Valley engineering labs decided to build their own version of a vector display system called "QuadraScan," which had a resolution of 1024 x 768. Once the system was working, Atari sent the prototype to its headquarters, where Wendi Allen and Rick Moncrief were given the task of adapting it for use in arcade video games. Allen chose to redesign the system using analog electronics instead of digital components, making it simpler and less expensive to produce.
During development, Allen proposed using the system to create a version of the game Lunar Lander. While Allen worked on the hardware and Moncrief focused on the display system, Rich Moore created the game's software. Lunar Lander was released in August 1979 as Atari's first vector game, but it was not widely successful, with only 4,830 units made.
A different team at Atari, including Lyle Rains, Ed Logg, and Steve Callfee, was working on a raster graphics game called Planet Grab. After seeing Lunar Lander, they asked if they could use the same system for their game, leading to the creation of Asteroids. Released in November 1979, Asteroids became Atari's most successful game, with 55,000 units sold.
As the system became very successful in arcades, Morgan Hoff organized a brainstorming meeting at Atari to explore other uses for the hardware. Around the same time, Atari was experimenting with early 3D displays using a custom math circuit called the "Math Box," developed by Jed Margolin and Mike Albaugh. This circuit included a specialized 16-bit Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) made up of four AMD Am2901 4-bit bit-slice ALUs. Combining the Math Box with the vector hardware seemed like a good idea, and the idea of creating a tank game was discussed, though Hoff could not recall who first suggested it.
Ed Rotberg led the design of the game. He said Atari's 1974 top-down arcade shooter Tank was the main inspiration for Battlezone, which was essentially a 3D version of that game. Battlezone also shares similarities with a first-person tank simulation called Panther for the PLATO system, but Rotberg stated he had never played Panther and doubted it influenced the idea.
Owen Rubin, who worked with Rotberg, had the idea of making the volcano in the background erupt and programmed the animation for it.
Ports
In the 1980s, the game Battlezone was made available for several computer systems, including the Apple II, Atari 2600, Commodore 64, VIC-20, IBM PC compatibles, ZX Spectrum, Atari 8-bit computers, and Atari ST. Atarisoft was responsible for adapting the game for systems that were not made by Atari. The version for the ZX Spectrum was published by Quicksilva.
The Atari 8-bit version was released on a cartridge in 1987, using the design style of the newly released Atari XEGS. A version for the Atari 5200 was planned for November 1983 but was later canceled.
The Atari 2600 version uses pixel-based images instead of line-based images and shows the player’s tank from a third-person perspective.
The Atari ST version includes parts of the original 6502 computer code, which is replicated using a different type of system.
Reception
Battlezone was released in November 1980 and became popular. While it was not as successful as Asteroids, it sold an additional 15,000 units for Atari.
Battlezone received positive reviews and earned an Honorable Mention for "Best Commercial Arcade Game" in 1982 at the Third Annual Arkie Awards. It finished as the runner-up, losing to Pac-Man. David and Sandy Small described the game as "addictive" and noted the Battlezone Tunnel Vision feature, which causes players to drive strangely during rush hour. A later review by Eurogamer stated, "Atari's designers created some very creative and interesting games before their decline. Battlezone is one of the better examples," and gave it a rating of 8 out of 10. Fox rated it 4 out of 5 in The Video Games Guide, though he acknowledged this might surprise some readers. In 1996, GamesMaster ranked the arcade version 97th on their "Top 100 Games of All Time" list.
Computer and Video Games magazine gave the Spectrum version of Battlezone a score of 30 out of 40, praising its technical achievements, such as the use of hidden line removal. The reviewer compared it to 3D Tank Duel, a similar game by Realtime Games Software, stating that the latter was slightly better than the official port.
The Bradley Trainer
A version named The Bradley Trainer (also called Army Battlezone or Military Battlezone) was created for the U.S. Army to train gunners who operate the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. A group of retired generals hired it to be developed.
In December 1980, some Atari developers refused to work on the project because of its connection to the Army. Ed Rotberg, the original programmer of Battlezone, was one of those who refused. He agreed to join the project only after Atari’s management promised him they would never ask him to work on military-related projects again. Rotberg said it took him three months of nonstop work to create the first version of The Bradley Trainer. Only two units were made: one was sent to the Army and is believed to be lost, and the other is owned by Scott Evans, who found it in a dumpster behind Midway Games.
The control system used in The Bradley Trainer was modeled after the Bradley Fighting Vehicle’s gunner yoke. This system was later used in the popular Star Wars video game. The Bradley Trainer is very different from the original Battlezone. It includes helicopters, missiles, and machine guns, and the tank does not move—only the guns rotate.
Legacy
Battlezone is sometimes called the first virtual reality arcade game because it uses first-person fake 3D images and special goggles that the player puts over their face.