Product Code Database
group=lower-alpha is a 1982 multidirectional shooter video game developed and published by Konami for arcades. It was distributed in the United States by Centuri and by Atari in PAL regions. While engaging in aerial combat, the player-controlled jet flies across open airspace that Scrolling indefinitely in all directions. Each level is themed to a different time period. Home ports for the Atari 2600, MSX, and ColecoVision were released in 1983 respectively by Konami and Coleco.
A top-down sequel, Time Pilot '84, was released in arcades in 1984. It eliminated the time-travel motif and instead took place over a futuristic landscape.
In each level, players battle many enemy aircraft and the occasional stronger aircraft. After a fixed number of these aircraft are destroyed, as displayed on a bar at the bottom right of the screen, a mothership appears. Once the mothership is defeated, they move onto the next time period. Parachuting pilots will occasionally appear and award players points if collected.
There are five levels: 1910, 1940, 1970, 1982/1983 and 2001. After the fifth level is finished, the game repeats thereafter.
Extra lives are given at 10,000 points, and per 50,000 scored up to 960,000; thereafter, the game goes to "survival of the fittest" mode.
Fighters are destroyed if they collide into bullets, enemy ships, bombs or missiles. Game ends when their last fighter is destroyed.
In the United States, the game topped the Play Meter arcade earnings chart in February 1983. The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) later listed it among the thirteen highest-earning arcade games of 1983.
Computer and Video Games magazine gave the arcade game a generally favorable review upon release.
The game was ported to the Game Boy Advance as part of on March 18, 2002. This version includes a hidden sixth era, 1,000,000 BC, with pterodactyl enemies.
Hamster Corporation released the arcade version for the PlayStation 2 as part of the Oretachi Gēsen Zoku series in 2005 in Japan. The company also released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2021.
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