Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom

Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom

Game No.	141
Voting	5.48 points, 29 votes
Company	Sega
Publisher	U.S. Gold
HVSC-File	/GAMES/A-F/Buck_Rogers.sid
Release	1983
Platform	C64, VIC-20
Genre	Shoot'em Up, 3D
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language

Description[edit | edit source]

It is the 25th century. You as the space pilot Buck Rogers are in the middle of a battle for Planet Zoom. A battle of life and death, because your biggest enemy is the hostile carrier spaceship. But before you meet it you will have to use your abilities against electrically loaded posts, alien spaceships and space-hoppers. And always take care of your fuel consumption, as a smash on Planet Zoom will always end in a loss of one of your spaceships. The faster you fly, the less fuel you need. When you have destroyed the carrier spaceship, your fuel will be refilled.

Design[edit | edit source]

... over the surface of the planet through the energy posts ...

... the fight with the carrier spaceship ...

The game consists of five levels with rising difficulty grade. Each level is divided in five different rounds, whereby the first three sections take place on the surface of the planet and the last two in space. The graphics have spatial depths and show corrrectly the approach of the gates and the enemies, but are a bit "blocky". Sound is used very restrainedly.

Hints[edit | edit source]

Controls[edit | edit source]

Joystick

= lower flying height, when minimum flying height is reached, then lower speed
= raise flying height, when maximum flying height is reached, then raise speed
= steer left/right
= shoot

Keyboard

S = lower flying height, when minimum flying height is reached, then lower speed

W = raise flying height, when maximum flying height is reached, then raise speed

A = steer left

D = steer right

Space = shoot

ShiftLock = pause

Restore = abort game and go back to title screen

Enenmies and obstacles[edit | edit source]

Level 1
Round 1 - 10 electric posts
Round 2 - 15 electric posts and alien ships
Round 3 - 20 electric posts, alien ships and Space Hoppers
Round 4 - 20 space fighters
Round 5 - the mothership

Level 2
Round 1 - 15 electric posts which shoot sideways
Round 2 - 20 electric posts and alien ships
Round 3 - 25 electric posts, alien ships and shooting Space Hoppers
Round 4 - 25 space fighters
Round 5 - the mothership with missiles

Level 3
Round 1 - 20 electric posts which shoot sideways
Round 2 - 25 electric posts and alien ships
Round 3 - 30 electric posts, alien ships and shooting Space Hoppers
Round 4 - 30 space fighters
Round 5 - the mothership with missiles

Level 4
Round 1 - 25 electric posts which shoot sideways and alien ships
Round 2 - 30 electric posts and alien ships
Round 3 - 35 electric posts, alien ships and shooting Space Hoppers
Round 4 - 35 space fighters
Round 5 - the mothership with missiles

Level 5
Round 1 - 30 electric posts which shoot sideways and alien ships
Round 2 - 35 electric posts, alien ships
Round 3 - 40 electric posts, alien ships and shooting Space Hoppers
Round 4 - 40 space fighters
Round 5 - the mothership with missiles

Electric posts - After level 1 they fire sideways loop flashes. With each level they are set closer together. They explode when being touched.

Alien ships - Explode when you touch them. They fly faster with rising difficulty grade and appear more often.

Space-Hopper - Explode when you touch them. After round 1 they start to shoot at your ship. They fly faster with rising difficulty grade and appear more often.

The mothership - Shoots missiles at your ship. Can only be destroyed when it is hit in the centre.

Points[edit | edit source]

Space fighters - 200 points
Alien ship - 200 points
Space-Hopper - 300 points
Electric posts - 500 points
Mothership - 20000 points and energy is refilled

Every 20000 points you get an extra spaceship.

Solution[edit | edit source]

Tips

One needs to fly through electric posts for them being counted.
The minimum speed is raised with every difficulty grade.
The difficulty grade does not rise after the 5th level.

Cheats[edit | edit source]

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
5.48 points at 29 votes (rank 925). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	6	30th May 2007 - "good" 1910 downs
Lemon64	6	30th May 2007 - 44 votes
Rombach	7	1984 - "Vote 3"
ZZap64	38%	Issue 5/85

Reviews[edit | edit source]

Rombachs C64-Spieleführer: "Compared to other shooters with similar graphics, I find Buck Rogers better than Megahawk or Quasar, but not as good as Suicide Strike. Vote: 3"

Robotron2084: "Blocky and jerky sprites, ominous-simple sound and little diversion, but there is something about this game that makes me return to the game again and again. Just wonderfully oldskool-like - 6 out of 10 points."

Mysticus: "In 1986 I couldn't really connect to the game, only shortly played it at that time. After 23 years I have rediscovered it, just played it and it was fun. But it is only an average shooter, even though with that je ne sais quoi. 5 points."

blubarju: "This game is still today as much fun for me as in the 80's. Graphics and sound might be bad to average, but the gameplay is good. Buck Rogers is always well suitable for a round in between. 8 out of 10 points."

Flodder: "The game was originally programmed for the VIC-20 on a 16k cartridge and is there one of the graphically most amibitious games. The graphics of the C64 version are obviously based on the forerunner, the similarities are striking. Of course the hardware of the C64 is not really used to the end but this does not derogate the fun in the game. If you liked the VIC-20 version, you will also not get disappointed on the C64."

Miscellaneous[edit | edit source]

"Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom" is a porting of the arcade machine with the same name.

The character Buck Rogers stems from a US-american science fiction comic from the 1920s. After several film versions there was also a TV series at the end of the 1970s / beginning of the 1980s, which was ceased after only two seasons.