- Blast off!
Bosconian is a multi-directional Shmup developed by Namco in 1981 and released overseas by Midway later the same year.
As was common back in the day, gameplay was fairly simple: The player took control of his rocket and blasted off to destroy menacing green space stations, asteroid swarms and frighteningly competent enemy ships. More than a mere Galaxian knock-off, Bosconian was unique in that it gave the player not only total directional control over his spaceship, but also the ability to fire additional shots from the aft of the ship.
While never quite so popular as Space Invaders or Namco's own Galaga, Bosconian nevertheless enjoys a strong following and is available on multiple iterations of Namco Museum, Plug N' Play TV games, and other retrogaming collections. Famicom space sim Star Luster has some connections to Bosconian, and Japanese arcades also saw a Vertical Scrolling Shooter sequel/spin-off called Blast Off.
Tropes:
- Attack Its Weakpoint: The stations have two opposite-facing openings into their cores that the player can shoot into.
- Cores-and-Turrets Boss: Each station has six turrets. Destroying all of them will destroy their base.
- Endless Game: Except for in the Sharp X68000 port.
- Red Alert: On the "CONDITION" indicator.
- Shout-Out: The title and the names of the enemy ships (Eich/I-Type, Ploor/P-Type, and Eddore/E-Type) are references to the Lensman series.
- Stalked by the Bell: When the player takes too long on a level, or misses a spy ship, then Condition Red begins.
- The War Sequence: Condition Red, accompanied with an alarm and the repeating "CONDITON RED!!!".
- Wrap Around
