1942

About

1942 is a vertically scrolling shooter by Capcom that was released as an arcade video game in 1984. Designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, it was the first game in the 194X series, and was followed by 1943: The Battle of Midway.

1942 is set in the Pacific Theater of World War II, and is loosely based on the Battle of Midway. Despite the game being created by Japanese developers, the goal is to reach Tokyo and destroy the Japanese air fleet; this was due to being the first Capcom game designed with Western markets in mind. It went on to be a commercial success in arcades, becoming Japan's fifth highest-grossing table arcade game of 1986 and one of top five highest-grossing arcade conversion kits that year in the United States.

Gameplay

The player pilots a Lockheed P-38 Lightning dubbed the "Super Ace". The player has to shoot down enemy planes and avoid enemy fire: a single hit on the plane or a collision with another aircraft causes the loss of one life. During the game, the player may collect a series of power-ups, one of them allowing the plane to be escorted by two other smaller fighters in a Tip Tow formation. Enemies included: Kawasaki Ki-61s, Mitsubishi A6M Zeros and Kawasaki Ki-48s. The boss plane is a Nakajima G10N.

The game has "a special roll button that allows players to avoid dangerous situations by temporarily looping out of" the playfield.[8] In addition to the standard high score, it also has a separate percentage high score, recording the best ratio of enemy fighters to enemies shot down.

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