Warrior (arcade game)

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Warrior
Developer(s)	Tim Skelly
Publisher(s)	Vectorbeam
Designer(s)	Tim Skelly
Release date(s)	1979
Genre(s)	Fighting game
Mode(s)	2 player versus only
Platform(s)	Arcade game
Input	2 joysticks, 2 buttons
Arcade cabinet	Upright
Arcade CPU(s)	CCPU, 5MHz
Arcade sound system(s)	samples
Arcade display	vector, Horizontal orientation

Warrior was released in the arcades in 1979. It is regarded as the first versus fighting game.

Developed by Tim Skelly whilst working at Cinematronics, it was released under the Vectorbeam company name shortly before Cinematronics closed Vectorbeam down; they had purchased the company 1978^[1]. The game featured two dueling knights rendered in monochrome vector graphics and based on crude motion capture techniques. Due to the limitations of the hardware used, the processor could not render the characters and gaming environment at the same time and backgrounds were printed, with the characters projected on the top.

1 Controls
2 Enduring influence
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Controls

Originally Skelly planned for a two player system with each player using two joysticks, one to control the movement of the player and the other controlling the player's weapon. However, financial constraints restricted the cabinet to one stick for each player and a button to switch between character and weapon modes. The sticks were produced in house and installed in cabinets in a way that found them unresponsive and difficult to use.

[edit] Enduring influence

The cabinets and hardware were produced on a low budget and proved to be very unreliable when compared to contemporary machines, as a result very few remain in working order, with only one known restored machine in the United Kingdom. Warrior is emulated by MAME^[2]. The game is regarded as the first of the one-on-one fighting game genre, a style of game whose popularity would not blossom until the the early 90's.