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group=lower-alpha is a 1981 scrolling shooter video game developed by Sega with assistance from Ikegami Tsushinkisore wa pon kara hajimatta: ākēdo terebi gēmu no naritachi, Akagi Masumi, Amyūzumento Tsūshinsha, 2005, . and published by Sega for Japanese and European arcades; it was distributed by Sega/Gremlin in North America. The player pilots a ship through two heavily defended space fortresses, and the outer space areas between them, to confront the Zaxxon robot at the end of the second fortress.
Zaxxon was one of the first games to employ axonometric projection, which lent its name to the game. The type of axonometric projection is isometric projection: this effect simulates three dimensions from a third-person viewpoint. It was also the first arcade game to be advertised on television,Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), The video game explosion: a history from PONG to Playstation and beyond (), p. xviii, ABC-CLIO, . with a commercial produced by Paramount Pictures for $150,000. The game was a critical and commercial success upon release, becoming one of the top five highest-grossing arcade games of 1982 in the United States.
Sega released a modified version as Super Zaxxon the same year and the Zaxxon-like shooter Future Spy in 1984.
The player's ship casts a shadow to indicate its height.Bernard Perron & Mark J. P. Wolf (2008), Video game theory reader two, p. 158 , Taylor & Francis, An altimeter is also displayed. In space, there is nothing for the ship to cast a shadow on. The walls at the entrance and exit of each fortress have openings, and the ship must be at the right altitude to pass through. Within each fortress are additional walls that the ship's shadow and altimeter aid in flying over successfully.
The game is controlled by a four-directional joystick. On arcade cabinets, this is an aircraft-type stick with a molded hand grip. Pushing forward makes the aircraft lower in altitude and pulling back makes it rise. The aircraft cannot move forward or backward; it flies at constant speed. As this sort of control and movement was not common in video games, the arcade cabinets have illustrations around the joystick to indicate the effect of each position on the aircraft.
In 1984, a clone was released for the Acorn BBC Micro series under the title Fortress.
The arcade game was a bigger commercial hit in North America, where it reached the top of the monthly US RePlay arcade charts in June 1982. The Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA) later listed it among the top six highest-grossing arcade games of 1982 in the United States.
The ColecoVision version was also commercially successful, being Coleco's best-selling non-bundled cartridge for the console up until 1983. In June 1983, Electronic Games ranked the ColecoVision version of Zaxxon as the #3 “Most Popular Videogame Cartridge” in its monthly reader poll.
The home computer ports were commercially successful in North America and Europe. II Computing listed Zaxxon fourth on its list of top Apple II games as of late 1985, based on sales and market-share data. On home computers in the United States, Zaxxon received a "Gold Award" from the Software Publishers Association (SPA) in December 1987 for software sales above 100,000 units. U.S. Gold's home computer version of Zaxxon was ranked number two on the UK software sales chart in early 1985.
Video Games in 1983 called the ColecoVision version of Zaxxon a "coup for this new system". Video magazine also praised the ColecoVision version in its "Arcade Alley" column, describing it as "one of the most thrilling games available", and noting in passing that the only "serious criticism" of the arcade original was "many players felt they needed flying lessons to have even a ghost of a chance of performing well". K-Power rated the Color Computer version with 8 points out of 10. The magazine praised its "excellent three-dimensional graphics", and said " Zaxxon is a game that can't be praised enough".
Softline in 1983 called the Atari 8-bit version "a superb three-dimensional computer game ... Not since Choplifter has a game looked so impressive". The magazine also liked the graphics of the Apple II and TRS-80 versions despite those computers' hardware limitations, and predicted that Zaxxon would be a "long-lived bestseller". In 1984, the magazine's readers named the game the fifth most-popular Apple program, the worst Apple program, and third-worst Atari program of 1983. InfoWorld's Essential Guide to Atari Computers cited it as a good Atari arcade game, noting "its distinctive three-dimensional graphics".
In 1987, Zaxxon 3-D was released for the Master System. This console variation makes use of the 3-D glasses add-on. As with the Atari 2600 and Intellivision ports, it is forward-scrolling rather than isometric.
Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 was released for the 32X in 1995. It is the first Zaxxon game with polygonal graphics. The game bore the Zaxxon brand only in the United States. It was released as Parasquad in Japan and Motherbase in Europe. US gaming critics generally found it was not similar enough to Zaxxon to justify the use of the brand.
Zaxxon Escape was released on October 4, 2012, for iOS and Android devices. It was criticized for having little resemblance to the original.
In 2012, Zaxxon was shown at "The Art of Video Games" exhibition at the Smithsonian.
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