Space Fury

The Good
There were a few nice vector games Sega/Gremlin released in the early Eighties, and one of them was Space Fury. It bears a resemblance to Asteroids; the player rotates and thrusts their ship, shooting enemies on screen before they have a chance to collide with the player. In this case, the enemies are space debris that combine to form a mega-piece that goes straight for the player if they don’t shoot it fast enough. Sometimes, they will just hurl projectiles at you. What sets Sega/Gremlin’s game apart from Atari’s are two things: the speech synthesis provided by the General Instruments SP0256, and the ability to upgrade your ship in between waves.

Only one home port was made, and that is for the ColecoVision. The first thing you see is the Alien Commander, which looks quite different to the one in the arcade version. The AC in this version is well designed and animated as he moves his mouth and diamond-shaped nose. I like how you can see through to his brain. I believe there was no speech module for the console, which is why this port lacks speech. However, this has been replaced with a nice tune that reminds me of the start of a sports presentation in the Nineties. It has a space-age feel to it.

The AC’s voice in the arcade version is transcribed underneath that. In the arcade version, the AC taunts you as you make some progress through the game. Having said that, I can see why there is no scrolling text equivalent in this port; it would only distract the player from the game. Owners of Coleco's console who have not been to the arcades to see this game are in for a real treat. The front cover for the game features the original arcade cabinet. I love the appearance of the marquee and the wood finish.

The three docking stations that appear between waves are quite colorful, and I enjoyed watching the explosion when you are hit by debris. Instead of your ship going up in flames, you see a pattern that looks like it comes straight from a kaleidoscope. The sound effects are your standard shooting sounds from other ColecoVision games.

The Bad
I can’t think of a thing.

The Bottom Line
I love the ColecoVision port of Space Fury much better. It is very faithful to the original game. The introductory music makes up for the lack of speech, and just like a lot of games of its time, it is addictive as well.