cover
front cover

Platform: Arcade

Region: NTSC-U

Country: United States of America

Developer(s): Dave Nutting Associates

Publishers(s): Midway Manufacturing

ReleaseDate: 1981-02-28

Players: 2

Co-op: No

Gorf

With its title doubling as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force," Midway's top-down space shooter undoubtedly has one of the silliest names in arcade history. Released in 1981, Gorf immediately grabbed players by talking to them in a terrifyingly eerie robotic voice, via the cutting-edge Votrax speech chip -- one of the first uses of synthesized speech in a game. Once they were in, players found themselves shooting up alien hordes across five distinctly different stages, several of which were well-made clones of popular arcade titles like Galaxian and Space Invaders. It may not have been entirely original (fun licensing fact: It was initially developed to be a Star Trek game), but that didn't make Gorf any less fun.

Trailer: YouTube

ESRB Rating: E - Everyone

Genre(s): Action | Shooter

Other Graphic(s)