My review of Attack of the Zolgear

[Framed_Niner]

So you may have heard that the Theater 6 in Nashua NH has been repaired. Within an hour of hearing the news, I immediately went on a road trip to the arcade. Sure enough the game was working. I regret to inform you that there have been some teething troubles, and the game needs to be repaired once again. But in that brief window of operation, I played a few times. Here's what I have to say.

The twin LaserDisc backgrounds are awesome. I never got more than three players playing, but I can confirm that the difficulty scales with player count. The game is quite difficult, and I haven't managed to beat it yet. The intercom voices are awesome. When you defeat the first boss, one of the voices says "Zolgear's next!". There are lights everywhere. A red light flickers throughout the entire theater when you are about to fail. The explosions are color coded. If the explosions are orange, the ship got hit. If they are blue, the enemy got destroyed.

The true beauty of this game doesn't come from being a particularly great video game. The gameplay is is admittedly mediocre. But this is less of a video game, and more of an experience. When you have six people coordinating to take down the bosses, panicking as the alarms go off, and voting on which level to play next, you see the Theater 6 truly shine. That is the beauty of Attack of the Zolgear.

[DarthNuno]

Thanks for your feedback, and it's great to see a true fan who didn't hesitate to go on a road trip to test the game immediately.
Indeed, the game difficulty id adjusts based on the number of players. The red lighting in the theater when the end is near is quite immersive and stressful!
The choice of branching paths, based on players votes, was a great idea and added replay value even after finishing the game.

Personally, I find the gameplay very interesting because, as long as the shooting guns are well-calibrated, the shots are very precise. Playing with several players is pure joy, competing for the best score. Maybe the guns weren't properly calibrated when you played?

When I got my Galaxian Theater, it was equipped with the Zolgear mission. After the repairs, I quickly switched to the original mission 'Project Dragoon' because it?s the one I have the most affection for. However, Zolgear is indeed a very special mission, as it has never been adapted for a console or computer. To my knowledge, the game is still not available in emulation, so it?s only playable on the arcade machine.

Did you take any photos when you were on-site?

[Framed_Niner]

...Did you take any photos when you were on-site?

I got a video. Here's me playing. This is around when the left LaserDisc started failing.
https://youtu.be/_ZvjbHC1ZbU