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Zaxxon (Commodore 64)
 

The Zaxxon defence system must be destroyed in this isometric-viewed shoot 'em up. The game has three stages, first taking you through Asteroid City, which is heavily protected by aircraft, guns and missiles. Many barriers are alarmed, leaving you with limited space to progress through, and fire must constantly be dodged.

Stage two is a space shoot out against hordes of enemy aircraft - those you failed to destroy in the first part of the task. Complete this and you reach the final battle with Zaxxon, the game looping with increased difficulty if you can survive the first time. There are three distinct skill levels, while controls involve using forward to dive and back to climb, in the manner of flight simulation. [106 more | add screenshots]
 











Cancelled ports

Commodore 64 licensing

Synapse's C64 license deal for Zaxxon was actually the result of a dodgy scheme set up by one of SEGA's own lawyers, Robert Crane. It involved setting up his own company called Universal Licensing, which managed to get the Zaxxon license, despite not being able to manufacture disks or pay licensing fees. One of his friends, Brian Depew, posed as Universal's general counsel, while Crane was using a pseudonym during the process of sublicensing the game to Synapse. He was actually writing to himself from Universal to SEGA. He also set up a deal later that granted Hesware the rights for Super Zaxxon. Eventually, the whole thing was discovered and a settlement agreement reached.

Sources: The case is described in Lawyers on Trial: Understanding Ethical Misconduct by Richard L. Abel. A shorter summary can also be found in the Entertainment Law Reporter, April 1991 issue.

Commodore 64 versions

There are two different, official ports of Zaxxon for the Commodore 64. Sega released the game on cartridge and Synapse Software released it on disk and cassette. Of the two, most people tend to agree that the Synapse version is superior. While the cartridge version's graphics are somewhat more faithful to the arcade original, the gameplay and sound aren't as polished as the Synapse version.


John Garcia was actually in management at Datasoft when Zaxxon was written.

Telematch charts

In issue 06/1983 of the German magazine Telematch, the non-existing Ti-99/4A version of Zaxxon reached number one of the Readers' Choice charts. The responsible employee was fired. More information about the Ti-99/4A version under "cancelled ports".


The curious moniker "Zaxxon" is derived, circuitously, from "isometric axonometric projection", its early 2.5D perspective which it is credited with being the first game to use.


Information also contributed by John Romero
PCGamer77 (3233) added Zaxxon (Commodore 64) on Apr 05, 2003
Other platforms contributed by Charly2.0 (147195), PCGamer77 (3233), RKL (5736), Sciere (520926), Kabushi (211730), Martin Smith (66869), Pseudo_Intellectual (60787), Servo (57398), Tomer Gabel (4646) and L. Curtis Boyle (750)


C64 Version by:
Peter A. Adams