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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:22:30+00:00

Face-off

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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:20:38+00:00

Other elements of the game (including a wall at the back of the picture)

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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:19:22+00:00

Fuel Tanks

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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:16:36+00:00

The computer

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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:11:49+00:00

Back cover of the Canadian bilingual edition

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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:10:35+00:00

Canadian bilingual version (also better quality picture than the one in the database)

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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:07:49+00:00

2 planes of the blue player

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Aljovin — 2008-04-21T00:04:40+00:00

An overview of the game's components

Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

mistermarino — 2007-11-18T01:38:42+00:00

You should be used to getting all these Cordwainer Bird Awards by now--not to mention all of the GG.

To help relieve the lonely misery of unreviewed OOP science fiction, fantasy and horror games, go to the Cordwainer Bird Award GeekList.

Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

Wyll — 2007-11-03T02:14:15+00:00

jearles wrote:
I was always partial to Q*bert myself.

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Sad to say, but Q*bert at least made an attempt to be half decent.

Wait until you hear my rant about Popeye.

Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

jearles — 2007-11-02T21:17:05+00:00

I was always partial to Q*bert myself.

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Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

nelf21 — 2007-11-02T21:12:20+00:00

Good times when I was aged "up."

Thread: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

Wyll — 2007-11-02T19:50:10+00:00

I miss the 80s.

No, I am serious. Everything was bright and colorful in the 80s. We had neon. We had pizza parlors. We had girls that wore 3 layers of clothing at the summer. We also had… videogames.

I was a lot of my teen years pumping quarters into everything from Pac-Man to Hyper Olympics. I was a video wizard and a pinball savant.

*wakes up from flashback city*

All right. So, let me get to the point. During the summer of 1982, someone at Milton Bradley got an idea that they should try to cash in on some of this video game craze. So, the churned out a few board games on some video games in an effort to earn some money.

One of the games they churned out was Zaxxon, a game that was kind of lousy to play in the arcade and even lousier to play at home.

Initial Thoughts

Zaxxon is a roll-and-move game with some objectives thrown in for good measure. One of the better things about the game is the art on the US/CAN box version. If they put half the effort in the game rules as they did into the box art, this may not have been such a bad game.

Still, I can remember my excitement when I first got this game for Christmas when I was 10. I was so excited I forgot how bad it was and I bought a copy of this game for $5 years later.

Object Of The Game

Be the first play to destroy a total of 4 fuel tanks, 1 gun turret, 1 missile silo and have both of your planes shoot Zaxxon.

Components

Inside the box, you get a gameboard (representing the Fortress), 4 fighter planes with bases (2 of each color), 4 brick walls (2 long, 2 short), 4 gun turrets, 4 fuel tanks, 4 missile silos, 1 Zaxxon pawn, 2 dice and a spinner.

Sounds like a lot of components? Well, when you look inside the box, it doesn’t look like there is a lot of things in the rather large box.

The art is rather uninspired. Keeping with the theme of the video game, there are only a few colors used (red, black, blue and white) on the components. To be honest, there is no real art to speak of; just shapes.

Gameplay

Once the board was set up and the players had picked which side they want to start with, the game begins.

During a turn, both players roll a die. Whichever player rolled the lowest number would get to move their plane(s) first (ties are rerolled).

The player who rolled the lowest number spins the spinner. The spinner had 4 results:

White – Everyone is safe.

Red – Any plane in or moving into a red zone (missile silo) was shot down and returned to start.

Blue – Any plane in or mobbing into a blue zone (gun turret) was shot down and returned to start.

Z (Outer Spinner Spaces) – If a “Z” is spun and a player is in the inner fortress, the lowest rolling player would move Zaxxon the number showing on the lowest dice.

To shoot a target, a player would use part of the die movement to count the shots. For example, if a player was 3 spaces from a fuel tank, he could use 3 moves from his die rolls to shoot the fuel tank.

The plane pawns could be pulled up from the base to show they were at high altitude. Planes have to be at a low altitude to shoot targets and high altitude to cross walls.

Once a player had shot all the required targets, they were declared the winner.

Strategy v.s. Luck Factor

With the color spinner having a 1 in 3 chance of “shooting” your plane down, you’re in for a rough ride. I found myself getting shot down a lot early in the game thanks to the spinner and some really weak die rolls.

Speeding through the fortress to take out the interior targets first is not an option. The game rules state that the interior fuel tanks are not placed until the exterior fuel tanks are shot first.

In the end, good die rolling and smart movement choices will help you win the game. I have found that after repeated plays, risky player is not rewarded too often.

Closing Thoughts

This is game I keep around more for its history and memories than for its actually game play.

It comes from a time where men wore makeup, girls had big hair and being a rebel meant you snuck into an “R” movie once in a while.

Unless you’re a big time collector of the 80s, I would skip this game and leave sleeping dogs lie.

Recommendation Summary

Wyll's Recommendation:

Fun Factor (5 Point Scale):

One Line Summary: A roll and move game with some objective achievement elements that just do not work, but is meant to be played by ages 7 and up.

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cagriggs — 2006-10-16T17:28:22+00:00

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cagriggs — 2006-10-16T17:26:12+00:00

Game: Zaxxon

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Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

Thread: Re: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

Thread: Good Memories Of The 80s Is All This Game Can Offer

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