Time Warped 1980 - Phoenix

On 02/13/2018 at 09:51 PM by KnightDriver

In which I am warped into an air traffic control tower and questioned by Steve McCroskey.

Who are you? Oh, this is a movie set. I think I know which. Hey. You're Leslie Neilson [cor. Lloyd Bridges]! Now I know.

Call me Steve McCroskey on this set. Who let the fan in? I knew this was the wrong day to stop smoking. That's a funny line. You should use it. Got any video games around here?

Just Atari Basketball on the control monitor over there. Another sight-gag for the film. That's cool, but what's that cabinet just off set?

pho

from pinballzone.com

Don't know. Oh, it's a Taito Phoenix cabinet. Cool! Ever played this? It's a shooter like Space Invaders. You fight giant alien birds. You can hit their wings but they just regrow them. You have to hit them in the chest. Then, after wave 4, you get the mothership and have to shoot through its rotating defence shield. This is a great game.

from gamesdatabase.org

I gotta get back to work. Knock 'em dead Leslie [cor. Lloyd], I mean, Steve.

After a few rounds on Phoenix, I was asked to leave for disturbing the set. I raced back to my Warp Hive in the back lot and headed back to 2018 and my Xbox and Taito Legends.

tlx

I played Phoenix until I got to the 5th wave and beat the mothership. I love it when there's a new screen with a different challenge on old arcade games. It's always a pleasant surprise. That is, until scrolling screens became more common.

Super Step Contributing Writer

02/13/2018 at 11:38 PM

I love Naked Gun!

KnightDriver

02/14/2018 at 10:49 PM

I messed up and put Leslie Neilsen instead of LLoyd Bridges like I meant too. The movie was Airplane. Both of them are in it too. I frickin' love Naked Gun. Leslie Neilsen is great. I always get him mixed up with Lloyd Bridges though. Maybe because they are of similar age and in similar movies.

Nicoleb1989

02/13/2018 at 11:44 PM

Not even gonna lie, when I saw the word Phoenix I instantly thought of Phoenix Wright. Which clearly shows I know nothing about half the older games that came before me,lol.

Cary Woodham

02/14/2018 at 01:09 AM

Phoenix Wright is pretty darn awesome, though.

02/14/2018 at 10:46 PM

Phoenix isn't one of the biggest names in old arcade games either. I had forgotten about it until I looked up games that came out in 1980. It's kind of a deep dig, in other words.

02/14/2018 at 01:10 AM

When I was a kid, I thought this game was really cool in arcades. Not sure why, though. I also remember the 2600 version of Phoenix being pretty decent, too, for what it was.

02/14/2018 at 10:44 PM

I was noticing the sort of random movements of the birds. It really throws you at first.

goaztecs

02/14/2018 at 11:26 AM

I've never heard of this game but it sounds like something I would play. Of course the next question is if I own Taito Legends.

02/14/2018 at 10:39 PM

I really like Taito games. I'm not sure why yet.

SanAndreas

02/15/2018 at 04:16 PM

Too bad Square Enix doesn't make Taito collections for consoles. I liked quite a few Taito games like Space Invaders, Space Dungeon, Qix, Arkanoid, Bubble Bobble, and Jungle King (Hunt).

02/15/2018 at 10:47 PM

Yea, what's up with that. I saw some arcade games on PSN recently but none of them were very familiar to me.

02/16/2018 at 12:49 PM

I'm familiar with a couple of the Arcade Archives titles that Taito made, like Legend of Kage and The Ninja Warriors, but other than Bubble Bobble, I don't see any of Taito's better known classics on there.

02/15/2018 at 04:14 PM

I never saw this in the wild, though I read about it in an old book of video game cheats.

Fun fact(?): Phoenix was possibly licensed to Centuri from a company based in.... Phoenix. That's from the game's Wikipedia page.

02/15/2018 at 10:46 PM

I think I might have played it back in the day, not regularly though.

I read that. I think they built the machines too. I guess it's better than importing them by ship from Japan.

PixlBit

Time Warped 1980 - Phoenix

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