Bosconian is a multidirectional shooter by Namco, released in 1981. It is not as prolific as other Namco shooters such as Xevious and Galaga, but has received many ports.
Gameplay[]
In Bosconian, the player takes control of a spaceship that can move in eight directions. This ship can also fire two lasers, one in front of the ship and one behind. The battlefield can be freely navigated and is filled with stationary asteroids and mines. There are also a number of bases on the stage. To compete a stage, the player must destroy all the bases. A purple map on the right side of the screen shows the relative location of the player and the bases. The bases can either be destroyed by shooting out all the cannon pods or hitting the core. In early stages, the core is always open, while in later stages it closes and opens.
Occasionally, enemy ships will appear, attempting to crash into the player. One of them is the "spy ship," which is worth many points, but can also be detrimental if left unattended. Above the map is the player's "condition."
- Green indicates that no enemy ships are nearby.
- Yellow indicates the presence of enemy ships
- Red indicates that the player has taken too long to finish the stage or that the spy ship hasn't been destroyed yet. In Condition Red, enemy ships appear more frequently and more actively target the player.
- Formation Attack indicates the presence of an enemy formation, an organized attack whose pattern can be seen next to the condition. Destroying the enemy leader (indicated by its different coloration,) scatters the remaining ships and destroying a complete formation grants bonus points.
Bosconian features early digitized speech. The start of each round begins with the game saying "Blast off!" and each condition has its own associated speech, such as "Alert! Alert!" at Condition Yellow.
Bosconian is also the second video game to feature the option to continue after game over (the first being SNK's Fantasy, released one month prior,) though this can be disabled in the DIP Switches.