Time Warped 1981 - Satan's Hollow

On 03/12/2018 at 03:21 PM by KnightDriver

I was playing 1981 games on Midway Arcade Origins, backwards compatible Xbox 360 game on Xbox One, when I discovered Satan's Hollow listed as '81. No matter that wikipedia says '82, I'm going with what the collection says. So I played it and thought it was good.

It's a fixed-screen shooter like Space Invaders; you have a shield that has limited use; and it has enemies that spiral in the sky and dive bomb you like Galaga. I think the enemies look like dragons but wiki says gargoyles. I like dragons. So you shoot these "dragons" and, in alternate waves, a floating demon's head as you try and drag pieces of a bridge from the left side of the screen to the right where they will, when enough are brought over, bridge a river of lava. Then you can move over it and, surprise, onto another screen.

Now you are on the other side of the castle and are attacked by, apparently, satan. Although, I just saw a tiny red cherub that throws red spikes at you super fast. If that's satan. . . then. . . well, ok. Satan's a tiny demon-child.

I got to the satan part and got killed but I kept playing a while. I like the little changes to the typical fixed-screen shooter format: the shield, the bridge building, the multiple fixed screens. I'll return to it again sometime, for sure.

daftman

03/12/2018 at 04:32 PM

Huh. Interesting. It's cool to have some kind of overarching goal other than just shooting everything.

KnightDriver

03/12/2018 at 10:38 PM

Yea, that's what I like about it.

Cary Woodham

03/12/2018 at 11:36 PM

Yeah like I said before, I had never heard of this game as a kid and I've never seen the cabinet ever, even after I learned about it. I think it's because i've lived in the Bible Belt my whole life.

03/13/2018 at 11:20 PM

Yea, I'm sure it wouldn't go over well there.

SanAndreas

03/17/2018 at 12:40 AM

I remember when the bosses in Ghosts 'n' Goblins on the NES were named Satan and Lucifer. Even Nintendo Power called them that. I guess that was before Nintendo really started cracking down on religious/demonic imagery.

goaztecs

03/14/2018 at 11:46 AM

Wow there must have a been a ton of games with the same gameplay during this time, yet I wouldn't complain because I do like Galaga and Space Invaders was fun. I like the addition of trying to build a bridge to advance to the next level of more bridge building while taking out "dragons"

03/15/2018 at 12:20 AM

I noticed a sheild in Phoenix today. So the shield isn't new.

03/17/2018 at 12:43 AM

I always thought there were three types of 80s vertical shoot 'em ups: the Space Invaders type (slow marching aliens with shields and bombs), the Galaxian/Galaga type (diving aliens), and the Centipede type (the insects, mushrooms, and the ability to move through the bottom area of the screen). I played a lot of clones back in the day as well as the actual games.

03/17/2018 at 12:38 AM

I actually played this, in the 80s, on my Atari 130XE computer. I played the arcade version on Midway Arcade Treasures on PS1.

03/17/2018 at 11:51 AM

Cool. I managed to miss it until Midway Arcade Origins.

PixlBit