gorf: MAME ROM Information.
History:
Gorf (c) 1981 Midway.
The player's goal is to defeat the Gorfian Empire and safeguard the future of mankind. Gorf is a single screen shoot-em-up in the classic "Space Invaders" mould, the prime difference being that Gorf offers 5 distinct levels of shooting action. The levels are as follows :
* Mission 1, Astro Battles : The first mission is more or less a straight clone of "Space Invaders", set against a sky-blue background. The player is protected by a glittering parabolic forcefield, which is gradually worn away by enemy projectiles. The forcefield also works in BOTH directions and therefore it must momentarily deactivate in order for the player's ship to fire out. To advance to the next mission, the player must destroy all the invaders.
* Mission 2, Laser Attack : The other missions are all set in space. In this mission, the player is faced with 2 formations each made up of 5 enemies. The formations are cross-shaped, and at the bottom of each formation is a single laser gun. The laser guns fire a long, dangerous yellow beam at regular intervals. At the same time, the other enemies may break formation and attempt to divebomb the player. Destroying a laser gun causes the corresponding formation to break apart. To advance to the next mission, the player must destroy all the enemies.
* Mission 3, Galaxians : This mission is a clone of "Galaxian". The player is faced with a swarm of galaxians, which continually divebomb and shower the player with deadly projectiles. To advance to the next mission, the player must destroy all the galaxians.
* Mission 4, Space Warp : A wormhole is situated in the middle of the screen out of which enemies ships emerge - one-at-a-time - and spiral outward at increasing speed; whilst growing larger and flinging fireballs at the player. The Space Warp level would have an influence on Konami's superb "Gyruss", released 2 years later. To advance to the next mission, the player must survive a number of these enemies.
* Mission 5, Flag Ship : The final mission is a 1-on-1 confrontation with the alien Flag Ship itself. The Flag Ship is one of the earliest examples of the 'boss' enemy in mainstream video games. It is equipped with its own forcefield, through which the player must blast in order to get a clean shot on the ship. It is also armed with a powerful fireball weapon. The player's weapon has a minor effect on the Flag Ship's hull, and can only blast off tiny pieces of it. This adds to the player's problems, as stray pieces of hull can destroy their ship. These pieces can be destroyed with a single shot. The only way to destroy the Flag Ship is to hit the glowing reactor at the heart of the ship, either by first blasting away the hull to expose it, or by managing to fire a shot directly into the tiny vent that leads to the reactor.
Each time the Flag Ship is destroyed, the player advances in rank. Initially, the player begins with the rank of Space Cadet, before moving on to Space Captain, Space Colonel, Space General, Space Warrior, and finally Space Avenger. The player's spaceship is equipped with a Quark Laser which allows the player to cancel a poorly aimed shot and fire another shot.
- TECHNICAL -
[Upright model] [No. 873]
Gorf upright arcade units came in a blue and grey dedicated cabinet with sticker sideart of several spaceships locked in battle.
Bally Midway Astrocade hardware
Main CPU : Z80 (@ 1.789773 Mhz)
Sound Chips : (2x) Astrocade (@ 1.789773 Mhz), Votrax SC-01
Control : 8-way 'flight yolk' controller with a trigger
- TRIVIA -
Released in February 1981, Gorf was the first game ever to show multiple scenes.
Gorf has achieved the status of 'true status' and became legendary for its groundbreaking, yet almost unintelligible speech.
This game featured some early speech synthesis that was done in a similar manner to that in "Wizard of Wor" (Gorf and Wizard of Wor ran on nearly identical hardware). Here is a list of the humorous phrases Gorf says throughout the game (Gorf calls you by your current rank, denoted in these lists by [rank]) :
Attract mode :
1) Insert Coin!
2) I am the Gorfian Empire.
3) Long Live Gorf!
NOTE : Move the joystick any time during the attract mode to trigger the speech.
Ready to play mode :
1) Long Live Gorf!
2) Push a player button.
Mission start-up :
1) Prepare yourself for annihilation, [rank]!
2) You will meet a Gorfian doom, [rank]!
3) Survival is impossible, [rank]!
4) You cannot escape the Gorfian robots!
5) I am the Gorfian Empire!
6) I am a Gorfian consciousness.
7) Gorfian robots...Attack! Attack!
8) Robot warriors, seek and destroy the [rank]!
9) My Gorfian robots are unbeatable!
10) Gorfians take no prisoners!
Player loses a ship :
1) Got you, [rank]!
2) Bad move, [rank]!
3) Some galactic defender you are, [rank]!
4) Another enemy ship destroyed!
5) Your end draws near, [rank]!
6) Ha ha ha ha!
Player loses last ship :
1) Too bad, [rank]!
2) Bite the dust, [rank]!
At game over :
1) Gorfians conquer another galaxy.
2) You cannot escape the Gorfian Robots.
3) All hail the supreme Gorfian Empire!
4) Try again; I devour coins!
Player destroys Flag Ship (and advances in rank) :
1) Nice shot! You have been promoted to [new rank]!
2) For hitting my Flag Ship, you have been promoted to [new rank]!
3) In the Gorfian chronicals, you have been promoted to [new rank]!
4) Next time will be harder, but for now you have been promoted to [new rank]!
NOTES : These phrases may not be easy to hear over the loud explosion of the Flag Ship. The Rank lamp on the bezel moves over to the next rank as soon as Gorf begins speaking.
OTHER NOTES :
Have you ever noticed that GORF is FROG spelled backwards? Seriously, GORF is an acronym for 'Galactic Orbital Robot Force'.
The game's creator, Jay Fenton, designed a sequel to Gorf called 'Ms. Gorf', but it was never released. Jay Fenton underwent a sex change and is now known as Jamie Fenton.
A Star Trek tie in was originally planned by Midway, but when the first movie fell flat, the Enterprise sprite was reused as the Gorf Flag Ship.
Todd Rogers holds the official record for this game with 653990 points.
A Gorf unit appears in the 1982 movie 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' and in the 1983 movie 'Joysticks'.
An upright Gorf unit appears in the 38 Special music video 'Caught Up In You'.
- SCORING -
Astro Battle :
Space Invaders (all) : 50 points
Destroying Gorfian robot distributing Space Invaders : 300 points
Mystery Saucer : 100 points
Back and Forth Saucer : 300 points
NOTE : If you hit a Space Invader when it is being launched from the Gorfian robot, you get 100 points.
Laser Attack :
Laser Ships : 300 points
Escorts for Laser Ships : 100 points
Galaxians :
All Galaxians not attacking : 50 points
Yellow Galaxian attacking : 60 points
Blue Galaxian attacking : 80 points
Red Galaxian attacking : 100 points
Galaxian Flagship : 300 points
Space Warp :
Enemy fighters : 100 points
Flag Ship :
Each hit : 20 points
Escorts : 100 points
Destroying a piece of debris : 150 points
Destroying Flag Ship (and advancing in rank) : 1000 points
Gorfian robots (appear randomly) : 300 points
- TIPS AND TRICKS -
* The action starts immediately as soon as you start your game. The first sight that will greet you are the Space Invaders. From that point on, the action will be non-stop with the only things changing are your rank and the difficulty of the enemies. Also, there is an interesting quirk in the game. If your ship hits a displayed score (after destroying some enemy), your ship will be destroyed. So avoid flying into scores. Also, you can only have one shot up at a time. This, though, can be countered by the fact that you can prematurely end a shot and fire another thus saving yourself a lot of time and perhaps your ship.
* Due to Gorf's limited hardware not being powerful enough to move the game's colourful sprites around easily, it's possible, on the Astro Battles screen, to slow the last two invaders down to a crawl; simply by repeatedly firing. On the Laser Attack screen, if you shoot all the enemy ships EXCEPT for the laser shooters, you can sit forever on the far left hand side of the screen. Useless, but interesting all the same.
* Astro Battles :
1) Fire immediately when the mission starts. You may get lucky and hit the Gorfian robot distributing the Space Invaders. Also fire at the invaders as they are being distributed for more points.
2) Instead of the normal 11x5 grid of invaders, you only have to deal with an 8x3 grid.
3) Instead of buildings to protect your ship, you now have a shield dome over you. It briefly disappears when you fire, but the invaders have to cut through it with their lasers.
4) Remember, you have a lot of maneuverability in your ship (i.e. you can go up and down) so it should be easy to avoid the invaders bombs.
* Laser Attack :
1) Your first priority should be the laser ships. Wait until they have fired and send a shot right up their laser cannon.
2) The escorts tend to make random movements so be wary of them coming at you from all directions.
3) As you advance higher in rank, everything speeds up accordingly.
* Galaxians :
1) Try to shoot the Galaxians when they are setting up to get the score for attacking Galaxians.
2) At first, only a couple will come down. After a while, though, the Galaxians attempt to swarm all over your ship. Since they each fire 3 shots apiece, this can present a particularly deadly situation.
3) Keep moving. There is no safe place (not even the corners).
4) At later ranks, it isn't uncommon for a whole bunch of Galaxians to attack your ship at once.
5) If you can, try to hit the Gorfian robot that sometimes bounds over the top of the Galaxians.
* Space Warp :
1) This is the mission that tends to kill off most players. You will see a black hole with dots in it. These dots represent the number of fighters you have to deal with coming out of the black hole. As a Space Cadet, you only deal with 12 fighters. From Space Captain onward, it will be 16 fighters.
2) Fighters leave fast or slow and rotate around the hole. In addition, they will also fire at you. It will take some fancy maneuvering to avoid both the fighter and the shot it fired.
3) Some fighters go around so fast, you just have to try to keep out of its way.
4) Sometimes fighters will launch a slow shot from the side of the screen. Watch out for these shots.
5) In the later ranks, it will take all of your skill to survive since everything moves very quickly on this mission.
* Flag Ship :
1) The Flag Ship will fly back and forth slowly. It will descend then ascend as it completes a back and forth movement.
2) There is a shield around the Flag Ship you must cut through to hit it. The Flag Ship can fire through the shield at you.
3) On the later ranks (starting with Space Captain), the Flag Ship is escorted by two Gorfian robots.
4) Plan your shots so you can expose the reactor. This will mean cutting through a little bit of the ship to accomplish this. Watch out for the debris you create since it is as deadly as the Flag Ship's laser shots. If you feel really daring, hit the debris for extra points.
5) After you have stripped the ship away from the reactor, a well-placed shot should obliterate the Flag Ship.
6) Again, in the later ranks everything moves much faster.
- SERIES -
1. Gorf (1981)
2. Ms. Gorf (1982)
- STAFF -
Executive producer : Dave Nutting
Game concept / Designers : Dave Nutting, Jay Fenton
Video programmer : Jay Fenton
Audio programmer : Scot Norris
Added program support : Rick Frankel, Bob Ogden
Electronics designers : Jeff Frederickson, Dave Otto
- PORTS -
NOTE : Due to licensing difficulties, the 'Galaxians' mission is omitted on most home ports.
* Consoles :
Colecovision (1981)
Atari 2600 (1982)
Atari 5200 (1983)
Atari XEGS
* Computers :
Commodore VIC-20 (1982)
Commodore C64 (1983)
BBC B (1983, Doctorsoft)
Acorn Electron (1983, 'Gorph' - Doctorsoft)
Commodore Amiga (1993, "Gorf", Towerbyte Software) : Includes Galaxians level.
Sinclair ZX-Spectrum (2004, "B.A.R.F." - Dinu Cristian Mircea)
- SOURCES -
Game's rom.
Machine's picture.
F.A.Q. by Kevin Butler A.K.A. War Doc
Jamie Fenton's website; http://www.fentonia.com/bio
MAME Info:
0.07 [Nicola Salmoria, Mike Coates]
Artwork available
Samples required
Bugs:
- Colors washed out in the 'Astro Battle' (Space Invaders) section of Gorf. MAMEBase (ID 02682)
WIP:
- 0.146: hap fixed Gorf and clones exit with autosave on.
- 0.145u4: Hooked up Votrax properly to Gorf. Currently disabled by default, but can be enabled by turning off USE_FAKE_VOTRAX in astrocde.h.
- 0.136u3: Tafoid fixed the 'Bonus Life' dipswitch for Gorf and clones. It's state was inverted.
- 0.135u2: Volker Hann added clone 'Gorf (program 1, with German Language ROM)'.
- 9th July 2008: Mr. Do - Fixed the colors on the Gorf bezel. Some sections that were white should have actually been gray. I probably had a faded source.
- 0.125u2: Chris Law added new samples for Gorf and updated the sample volume. Download samples at http://www.mameworld.info/samples/wav/gorf.zip
- 0.123u6: Mr. Do added internal artwork for Gorf.
- 0.123u3: RansAckeR added DIP locations and improved dipwitches in Gorf.
- 0.115u2: Aaron Giles corrected speaker locations and placement for Gorf. Added missing mux to Gorf's audio, which controls speech versus sound effects during the game. Aaron Giles fixed recently introduced bug in Astrocade driver relating to collision detection. Changed visible area to 240x352.
- 0.115u1: Changed Z80 CPU and 2x Astrocade clock speeds to 1789772 Hz, palettesize to 512 colors and VSync to 60.054442 Hz. Added 'Speech' dipswitch.
- 0.111u6: Aaron Giles changed Gorf to use HOLD_LINE instead of PULSE_LINE for scanline interrupts. The timing is still off, but the game runs now.
- 10th December 2006: Mr. Do - Thanks to the loan by Vintage Arcade Superstore, Gorf artwork is now sharper than ever, thanks to a fine vector job by Zorg.
- 8th October 2006: Mr. Do - Aaron Giles has been purchasing and scanning stuff, that Ad_Enuff cleans up and converts for MAME. This week, we have Gorf artwork. I also added in the light effects.
- 0.106u10: Aaron Giles updated Gorf to support the new artwork system.
- 0.104u6: Removed Custom sound.
- 0.96u1: Fixed lower/upper Astrocade sound/speaker and Samples volume (because of the 0.93 Sound System update).
- 0.88u2: Frank Palazzolo support stereo in Wizard of Wor, Robby Roto, Gorf and Professor PacMan (Sounds great now!!).
- 1st November 2002: Phil Stroffolino improved the Gorf colors.
- 24th May 2002: Zsolt Vasvari added support for the lamps in Gorf.
- 0.37b7: Added samples (a - emperor.wav).
- 29th March 2000: Nicola Salmoria fixed the Astrocade hardware star and sparkle generators.
- 0.36b7: Added Custom sound.
- 27th June 1999: Mike Coates modified Gorf to be rotated correctly (vertical).
- 7th June 1999: Mike Coates fixed Gorf title screen.
- 0.34b4: Emulation of the Astrocade sound chip (Extra Bases, Gorf, Robby Roto, Space Zap and Wizard of Wor) [Frank Palazzolo]. Kevin Bales improved speech in Gorf. It now plays speech 100% accurately except for the missing samples. Added 2x Astrocade sound.
- 0.31: Alex Judd added clone Gorf (Program 1). Added better speech in Gorf (MAME Gorf voice samples v1.0: Kevin Estep (Original Machine samples and recording) and Alex Judd (Sound driver and sample manipulation)). Known issues: Colors are wrong in cocktail mode.
- 0.28: Mike Balfour added high score saving to Gorf.
- 0.27: Mike Coates improved again the Gorf driver. It's now (sort of) playable. Control: Arrows = Move around and CTRL = Fire. Known issues: Speed of invaders/galaxians/scrolling text is too fast. You can crash into the background (i.e. on the warp screen).
- 0.26: Mike Coates improved Gorf (which is still unplayable).
- 0.07: Added Gorf (Midway 1981). Game doesn't work, colors are wrong and missing sound. This game runs on the same hardware as Wizard of Wor, but doesn't work yet. It boots, shows some text on the screen and that's all.
STORY:
- The evil Gorfian Robot Empire has attacked. Your assignment is to repel the invasion and launch a counterattack. You will engage various hostile spacecraft as you journey toward a dramatic confrontation with the enemy flag ship.
LEVELS: 5 (endless)
Other Emulators:
* WINGORF (Single Arcade Game Emulator)
Recommended Games (Space Invaders 2):
Cosmic Guerilla
Dai San Wakusei Meteor
Kamikaze
Space Beam
Space Guerrilla
Space Laser
Invader's Revenge
Enigma II
Gorf
Hole Land
Battlantis
Minivader
Play Girls 2
Romset: 32 kb / 8 files / 23.5 zip
MAME XML Output:
| | <game name="gorf" sourcefile="astrocde.c" sampleof="gorf"> |
| | | <description>Gorf</description> |
| | | <manufacturer>Midway</manufacturer> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-a.bin" size="4096" crc="5b348321" sha1="76e2e3ad1a66755f1a369167fdb157690fd44a52" region="maincpu" offset="0"/> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-b.bin" size="4096" crc="62d6de77" sha1="2601faf12d0ab4972c5535ffd722b03ecd8c097c" region="maincpu" offset="1000"/> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-c.bin" size="4096" crc="1d3bc9c9" sha1="0b363a71d7585a4828e08668ebb2999c55e02721" region="maincpu" offset="2000"/> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-d.bin" size="4096" crc="70046e56" sha1="392214cc6ed4155bfe022d36f0f86c2594a5ab57" region="maincpu" offset="3000"/> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-e.bin" size="4096" crc="2d456eb5" sha1="720fb8b48e20c1fc281d8804259016c3c5364a07" region="maincpu" offset="8000"/> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-f.bin" size="4096" crc="f7e4e155" sha1="9c9d6d3bfee6556dc7a01de81d6148dd02f04fc9" region="maincpu" offset="9000"/> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-g.bin" size="4096" crc="4e2bd9b9" sha1="9edccceea5af015275582553ed238c40c73d8f4f" region="maincpu" offset="a000"/> |
| | | <rom name="gorf-h.bin" size="4096" crc="fe7b863d" sha1="5aa8d824814ee1c30eaf0044da78d3aa8220dcaa" region="maincpu" offset="b000"/> |
| | | <sample name="anhilatn"/> |
| | | <sample name="chronicl"/> |
| | | <sample name="consciou"/> |
| | | <sample name="defender"/> |
| | | <sample name="destroyd"/> |
| | | <sample name="flagship"/> |
| | | <sample name="galactic"/> |
| | | <sample name="gorphian"/> |
| | | <sample name="gorphins"/> |
| | | <sample name="hahahahu"/> |
| | | <sample name="impossib"/> |
| | | <sample name="prisonrs"/> |
| | | <sample name="promoted"/> |
| | | <sample name="survival"/> |
| | | <sample name="unbeatab"/> |
| | | <sample name="warriors"/> |
| | | <sample name="yourself"/> |
| | | <chip type="cpu" tag="maincpu" name="Z80" clock="1789772"/> |
| | | <chip type="audio" tag="upper" name="Speaker"/> |
| | | <chip type="audio" tag="lower" name="Speaker"/> |
| | | <chip type="audio" tag="astrocade1" name="Astrocade" clock="1789772"/> |
| | | <chip type="audio" tag="astrocade2" name="Astrocade" clock="1789772"/> |
| | | <chip type="audio" tag="samples" name="Samples"/> |
| | | <display tag="screen" type="raster" rotate="270" width="352" height="240" refresh="60.054442" pixclock="7159090" htotal="455" hbend="0" hbstart="352" vtotal="262" vbend="0" vbstart="240" /> |
| | | <input players="2" buttons="1" coins="2" tilt="yes"> |
| | | | <control type="joy" ways="8"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Service Mode" tag="P1HANDLE" mask="4"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="4" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Cabinet" tag="P1HANDLE" mask="64"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Upright" value="64" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Cocktail" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Speech" tag="P1HANDLE" mask="128"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="0"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="128" default="yes"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Coin A" tag="P4HANDLE" mask="1"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="2 Coins/1 Credit" value="0"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="1 Coin/1 Credit" value="1" default="yes"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Coin B" tag="P4HANDLE" mask="6"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="2 Coins/1 Credit" value="4"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="1 Coin/1 Credit" value="6" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="1 Coin/3 Credits" value="2"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="1 Coin/5 Credits" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Language" tag="P4HANDLE" mask="8"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="English" value="8" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Foreign (NEED ROM)" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Lives per Credit" tag="P4HANDLE" mask="16"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="2" value="16"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="3" value="0" default="yes"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Bonus Life" tag="P4HANDLE" mask="32"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="None" value="0"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Mission 5" value="32" default="yes"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Free Play" tag="P4HANDLE" mask="64"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="64" default="yes"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="0"/> |
| | | <dipswitch name="Demo Sounds" tag="P4HANDLE" mask="128"> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="Off" value="0"/> |
| | | | <dipvalue name="On" value="128" default="yes"/> |
| | | <driver status="imperfect" emulation="good" color="good" sound="imperfect" graphic="good" savestate="supported" palettesize="512"/> |
|
|
