magazine

CLASSIC MOMENTS
Phoenix
» Platform: ARCADE » DeveloPer: CENTURI/TAITO » releaseD: 1980
Few moments in arcade videogames are as
impactful as meeting the gigantic mothership
in the Centuri-published Phoenix for the first
time. First, you have to deal with waves of
alien birds across two stages, and then you have to deal
with the larger Phoenixes that hatch from eggs and fire
down relentless streams of bullets at you. Pass those
and you’re faced with an alien safely ensconced in a
seemingly impenetrable ship that you need to continually
shoot at. Needless to say, when you finally defeat your
alien foe the satisfaction is immense. Congratulations,
you’ve just destroyed one of gaming’s earliest bosses.
MORE CLASSIC
PHOENIX MOMENTS
Shoot the stomach
The third and fourth stages of
Phoenix has you encountering
large eagle-like Phoenixes
that hatch from eggs and
transform into deadly killer
birds that do their best to turn
your ship into a smouldering
wreck. Shooting off the wings
simply cause them to regenerate, meaning you
need a direct hit on their bellies to split them in
half so you can finish your quest.
Shields up!
One of the mechanics that
set Phoenix apart from other
shooters at the time was its
shield, which enabled you to
absorb enemy bullets for a
few precious moments. While
it’s typically used as a defence
mechanism, if you’re feeling
ballsy you can use it as a weapon, raising it at
just the right moment so that an enemy ship flies
straight into it. Blam!
BIO
Apparently, no one knows the
developer that was responsible
for creating Phoenix. What we
do know is that Centuri and Taito
published the game in arcades
with Atari taking control of the sole
home conversion for the Atari 2600.
Similar in style to Gorf, Phoenix
tasks you with shooting your way
through a number of distinctly
different stages before you finally
encountered one of the first bosses
to ever appear in a videogame.
Needless to say it’s a memory that
would stay with you forever.