Colony 7 is a 1981 Taito America fixed-screen defensive shooter that deserves more attention than it usually receives. At first glance it belongs to the crowded post-Space Invaders school of games in which a player protects a position at the bottom of the screen from waves of airborne attackers. In play, however, Colony 7 is unusually busy and tactical for that description. The player is not merely defending a cannon or a row of disposable shields. The lower part of the screen is a colony: fuel bases, a space port, laboratories, housing, defensive weapons, and a protective ion shield can all be damaged as the attack develops. Surviving structures are worth bonus points, so the battlefield visibly records how well—or how badly—the defense is going.

The premise is simple. Colony 7, described in Taito’s manual as Earth’s most distant deep-space colony, is under attack by the Jarvians. Two anti-matter cannons fire converging beams toward the player’s aiming point. Enemy fighters strafe the colony with plasma rockets, a Scout can keep bringing replacements into the fight, a high-value Advisor Ship tempts the player to look away from the immediate defense, and a bomber can target the colony’s cannons. The player also has two limited special systems: Mega-Blasters, which burst into a wide pattern of secondary explosions, and an Eradicator that can clear the screen once per colony.

The most historically striking feature was not another enemy or weapon. Taito promoted an extra-coin option called Extended Weaponry. The recovered flyer describes it plainly: for an additional coin the player receives greater destructive power, with deadly explosions covering a larger radius. The operator-facing sales pitch was just as direct—bigger scores were supposed to mean bigger profits. This makes Colony 7 an unusually clear 1981 example of an arcade game asking a player already at the machine to pay extra for an in-game advantage.

That point is sometimes blurred in modern summaries. The primary documents do not say that the player individually purchases Mega-Blasters or the Eradicator. Those are already part of the colony’s normal defensive equipment and have their own limits. The extra coin activates the more powerful Extended Weaponry condition. In modern language it resembles a paid power-up or an early microtransaction-like experiment, but the historically safest description is Taito’s own: an additional-coin mode that expands the area of destruction.

The game was sold in two dedicated cabinet forms. Taito’s own Colony 7 flyer specifies the standard upright at 68 inches high, 24 inches wide and 35 inches deep, with a crated weight of 300 pounds. The Trimline version was a much smaller 54 inches high, 20 inches wide and 24 inches deep, with a crated weight of 180 pounds. Contemporary Taito America equipment listings date both Colony 7 and Colony 7 Trimline to July 1981, and a July 18, 1981 Cash Box article says directly that the game was available through Taito’s distributor network in both cabinet styles.

The recovered development history points to Threshold Research Corporation and programmer Randy Pfeiffer. In a later first-person recollection preserved by Atari Compendium, Pfeiffer remembered Taito America needing a game in a hurry: he was asked whether he could produce one before the production line went idle in six weeks, wrote a game description that Taito America president Jack Mittel approved, and finished the game in roughly five weeks. That recollection should not be confused with a period production record, but it is valuable testimony from the programmer himself and fits the recovered Threshold Research attribution.

Technically, Colony 7 is also interesting. Its hardware belongs to the Williams 6809 orbit rather than to a typical Taito Japan platform. The surviving schematics show a Motorola 6809-family CPU design, while current MAME source places the game in its Williams 6809 driver and runs it with the Defender-family machine configuration. MAME also notes a Colony 7-specific video decoder PROM. The exact commercial or legal path by which Taito America arrived at that architecture is not established by the recovered evidence, so it is better to describe the board as Williams/Defender-derived or closely related rather than to invent a licensing story.

Factory service material shows that the hardware and software continued to be refined after release. Taito America issued fixes for video-counter timing, fragments of explosions remaining on screen, false end-of-game behavior, freeze-up and sync faults, and a problem in which inserting a coin during attract mode did not always generate a credit. The latter bulletin instructed operators to replace the first three program ROMs, demonstrating that an official program revision existed. Modern emulation preserves two Colony 7 program sets whose primary differences are likewise in the first three program ROMs, although the recovered documents do not by themselves prove a one-to-one match between the service ROM part numbers and MAME’s two named sets.

Colony 7 never became one of Taito’s defining hits. That obscurity is exactly why it is interesting now. It combines a fast emergency-development story, an American Taito identity, an unusual Williams-like hardware base, two dedicated cabinet formats, unusually destructive battlefield persistence, and one of the clearest early attempts to sell extra power to a player for an additional coin.

Title: Colony 7
Manufacturer / U.S. publisher: Taito America Corporation
Country context: United States; recovered flyer marked “Made in U.S.A.”
Release: July 1981 is the strongest recovered catalog date.
Dedicated cabinet forms: Upright and Trimline.
Players: One or two players, alternating.
Genre: Fixed-screen defensive shooter / colony-defense action game.
Developer attribution: Threshold Research Corporation is the strongest preservation-era company attribution; Randy Pfeiffer’s later recollection identifies himself as the person who wrote the game description and finished the program.
Production quantity: Not established.
Sales quantity: Not established.

Colony 7 sits at an interesting junction in Taito America’s history. Taito had already become a dominant name through Space Invaders, and in 1981 the company was developing a distinct American product identity alongside imported Japanese games. The recovered material makes Colony 7 unmistakably a Taito America product. The flyer lists the Elk Grove Village, Illinois address, marks the game as made in the United States, and advertises two cabinet choices including Taito America’s compact Trimline format.

The game also belongs to a period when the industry was looking for ways to make familiar shooting concepts more elaborate. Colony 7 uses a fixed battlefield, but the player’s attention is divided among multiple threats and limited defensive resources. Its colony is not abstract scenery. Individual structures and fuel resources matter to scoring and weapon availability, and the protective shield is physically carved away as the battle progresses.

The surviving Cash Box material helps pin down the commercial timeline. In June 1981 Taito America was preparing sample shipments and describing the game as its next scheduled video release. By the July 18 issue, Taito president Jack Mittel was presenting Colony 7 and its Extended Weaponry feature to the trade, and the article states that upright and Trimline cabinets were available through the company’s distributor network. Later Taito America equipment lists identify both versions as 7/81 releases. July 1981 is therefore the preferred publication date.

The development attribution is recoverable from multiple preservation sources. Threshold Research Corporation is associated with Colony 7, Qix, Qix II and The Electric Yo-Yo. Historical preservation research identifies Threshold as a company founded by Randy Pfeiffer and Sandy Pfeiffer. Randy had a background in arcade and pinball programming and had worked within the Williams orbit before his Taito-era projects.

The strongest personal testimony for Colony 7 comes from Randy Pfeiffer himself in a later recollection preserved by Atari Compendium. Pfeiffer remembered the assignment as an emergency. In substance, Taito told him its production line would run out of product in about six weeks and asked whether he could write a game inside that window. Pfeiffer said he wrote a game description, Taito America president Jack Mittel approved it, and he completed the game in about five weeks. Mittel then thanked him with cruise tickets.

That anecdote is valuable because it explains several things without requiring us to exaggerate them. Colony 7 is mechanically dense but built on a hardware architecture closely related to an existing Williams design. A programmer with prior Williams experience working under an aggressive production deadline would have had practical reasons to favor familiar, proven ideas. That is a plausible historical interpretation. It is not, however, proof of a particular hardware license or formal transfer from Williams, so the publication must keep inference separate from fact.

The game’s internal high-score initials also preserve a small Threshold/Taito fingerprint. Pfeiffer later identified initials in the table as references to people and organizations around the project: Randy and Sandy Pfeiffer, hardware man Doug Hughes, office manager Christy Liljestrand, Threshold Research Corporation, Sacramento/California, and Taito America/Chicago/Illinois. This makes the high-score table a miniature development-team time capsule.

Credit language should remain cautious. Randy Pfeiffer can be described as programmer/developer on the strength of his recollection and the Threshold attribution. Sandy Pfeiffer was a Threshold co-founder and deeply involved with other Threshold/Taito work, but the recovered material does not establish a precise Colony 7-specific art, sound, programming or design role for her. Doug Hughes is identified by Pfeiffer as the “hardware guy” in connection with the high-score initials, but a formal title credit has not been recovered.

The owner’s manual frames the setting dramatically: Colony 7 is Earth’s most distant deep-space colony, and it is under attack. The colony includes three fuel bases, a space port, laboratories and a housing area. Two anti-matter cannons defend it.

The playfield is vertical. Enemy ships occupy the upper portion of the screen while the colony and its shield occupy the lower portion. The player aims a target point with the joystick. Pressing Fire launches beams from both colony cannons; the beams race toward the selected location, converge and detonate. This convergence mechanic gives the player a different visual rhythm from firing a conventional projectile straight upward.

A protective ion shield sits above the colony. Enemy fire can blast random chunks out of it, gradually opening routes toward the structures beneath. The destruction is persistent enough that the battlefield tells a story: a clean early defense looks different from a desperate late-wave colony full of holes and missing facilities.

The player is protecting several things at once: the two principal cannons, colony structures with end-of-wave point value, fuel bases supporting Mega-Blaster availability, the overall colony or “life,” the integrity of the shield, and the opportunity to attack high-value or strategically important enemies before they cause larger problems.

The manual calls the enemy the Jarvians. Enemy fighter squadrons perform strafing attacks and fire plasma rockets whose limited range makes the lowest attackers the most immediate danger. A deep-space scanner indicates remaining fighters.

Fighters

Regular fighters are the main attacking force. They strafe the colony and fire plasma rockets. Their attacks chew through the ion shield and threaten the defensive structures below. As play progresses, the enemies become faster and more difficult.

Scout

The Scout is strategically important because it can call up replacement fighters. Taito’s flyer emphasizes that a shorter Scout flight means fewer replacements enter the battle. The Scout stays high in the sky, carries no offensive weapon in the manual’s description, and has relatively low point value. Its real value is logistical: leaving it alive allows the fight to replenish itself.

Advisor Ship

The Advisor appears only briefly and is worth a large number of points. It is deliberately tempting. Chasing it means taking attention away from the colony’s immediate defense—a score-versus-safety choice.

Cannon Bummer / Bomber

The recovered sources use two wordings. The owner’s manual calls this enemy the Cannon Bummer. The flyer and trade description use the more natural Bomber language. It flies across the top portion of the screen and drops bombs aimed at the player’s cannons. The discrepancy should be preserved rather than silently “corrected”; it may reflect manual terminology versus marketing copy.

Surviving cabinet photography shows the red joystick labeled CONTROL and separate buttons for MEGA-BLASTER, ERADICATOR, and FIRE, plus one- and two-player start controls.

Standard anti-matter fire

The normal Fire button activates the colony’s two main cannons. Their beams converge at the player-selected target and explode. The dual-beam visual reinforces the idea that the colony itself is operating as a defensive system rather than the player controlling a single ship.

Mega-Blaster

The Mega-Blaster is a limited-use area weapon. When fired, the projectile reaches the target cross and then breaks into a large pattern of secondary bombs; the manual describes thirty-two bombs destroying enemies within a limited radius.

The colony begins with three Mega-Blaster resources, tied to the three fuel bases. Because those fuel bases can themselves be destroyed by enemy fire, the battlefield and weapon economy are connected. Losing infrastructure does not merely cost end-of-wave points; it can remove defensive capability.

Eradicator

The Eradicator is the emergency screen-clear weapon. The player receives one per colony. When used, it destroys the enemies on screen at that moment. The manual also says the Eradicator installation itself can be destroyed by enemy fire, taking the adjacent gantry with it and costing structure value that might otherwise survive to the end-of-wave bonus.

Mega-Blaster and Eradicator are not the things the player buys with Extended Weaponry. They are normal defensive systems with explicit resource limits.

This is the feature around which Taito built the game’s trade advertising, and the place where modern retellings are most likely to become inaccurate.

The flyer says that an additional coin can increase the player’s power of destruction. It explains that Extended Weaponry makes the game easier by giving explosions a larger radius of force. The owner’s manual is similarly direct: when Extended Weaponry is desired, additional coin or coins are required, and the mode gives the player’s weapons a greater area of destruction.

In other words, the extra payment activates a stronger destructive radius. It does not appear in the primary documentation as a menu where the player separately buys each special weapon.

That distinction matters historically. Mega-Blaster and Eradicator already exist as normal, limited resources. Extended Weaponry modifies the effectiveness of the player’s weapon system and is tied to an additional payment. Taito’s sales pitch openly connected larger scoring potential to larger operator revenue.

A modern reader may reasonably see this as microtransaction-like design: the player pays extra, during the play experience, for an in-game advantage. We should still avoid pretending that “microtransaction” was the contemporary term or that the implementation was identical to modern digital purchases. Preferred wording: Colony 7 offered an unusually explicit extra-coin power-up called Extended Weaponry, increasing the blast radius of the player’s attacks. In modern terms it resembles an early arcade microtransaction, but Taito marketed it simply as additional paid destructive power.

The DIP/bonus table shows that the game expected Extended Weaponry to affect scoring potential. With two starting colonies, the low bonus threshold is 20,000 points in normal play and 40,000 with Extended Weaponry; the high setting is 30,000 versus 50,000. With three starting colonies the corresponding thresholds are 30,000 versus 50,000 and 40,000 versus 70,000. The game therefore does not merely make the paid mode stronger and leave all other economics unchanged; its bonus targets rise to compensate.

This is one of the most publication-worthy details in the entire project.

At the end of a fighter squadron, surviving colony structures earn bonus points. The value of those structures increases after subsequent squadrons. This creates a strong incentive to defend cleanly rather than simply survive.

The game also awards a bonus colony at an operator-selectable score threshold. Starting colonies can be set to two or three. The threshold depends both on the low/high bonus setting and on whether Extended Weaponry is in use.

Difficulty escalates as the Jarvians become smarter and faster. The Scout’s replacement-fighter role can lengthen a wave if the player fails to deal with it promptly. The Advisor creates a score-versus-defense temptation. The bomber threatens the cannons directly. Destructible fuel bases determine whether all Mega-Blaster resources remain available. These systems make Colony 7 more tactical than a superficial description such as “another Space Invaders clone” suggests.

Upright

The recovered flyer specifies: - Height: 68 inches / approximately 171 cm - Width: 24 inches / approximately 61 cm - Depth: 35 inches / approximately 87.5 cm - Crated weight: 300 pounds / approximately 136 kg - One or two players - 19-inch color monitor according to the owner’s manual

The upright is visually distinctive. The cabinet carries elaborate space/colony side art and a broad control panel with separate controls for the three weapon functions. Surviving photographs show Taito America branding and the 1981 copyright. The manual names Wells-Gardner or Electrohome as the 19-inch color-monitor suppliers/configurations covered for service.

Trimline

The recovered Colony 7 flyer itself gives: - Height: 54 inches / approximately 138 cm - Width: 20 inches / approximately 51 cm - Depth: 24 inches / approximately 61 cm - Floor space: 3.3 square feet / approximately 0.31 square metres - Crated weight: 180 pounds / approximately 81 kg - One or two players

This corrects an earlier project note that treated 54 x 20 x 24 as only general Trimline-family evidence derived from a Space Invaders advertisement. For Colony 7, those measurements are directly title-specific.

Only small recovered Trimline sale/forum images survive in the present package. They are valuable evidence of the cabinet and control arrangement but are not ideal hero images. The flyer should carry the visual burden unless a stronger full-resolution Trimline survivor photograph is later found.

The wider Taito America Trimline program predates Colony 7. Trademark and advertising evidence shows that “Trimline” was an official Taito America product term, not a collector nickname invented decades later.

The hardware is one of Colony 7’s most interesting preservation stories.

The recovered schematics show a Motorola 6809-family CPU system. Current MAME source places Colony 7 within its Williams 6809 driver and explicitly notes a Colony 7-specific decoder PROM, while using the Defender-family machine configuration for the game.

Current emulation models the main MC6809E at approximately 1 MHz from a 12 MHz master clock and uses an M6808-family sound CPU with an MC1408 DAC. Those values are useful technical reference points, but publication should distinguish emulation implementation details from facts literally printed in the operator manual.

The safe historical formulation is: the board is closely related to the Williams/Defender 6809 architecture; surviving schematic evidence and modern MAME implementation both support that relationship; Colony 7 has title-specific ROM/PROM content and control mapping; the recovered evidence does not establish the precise contractual or licensing arrangement behind the architecture.

Do not write “Taito licensed the Defender hardware from Williams” as established fact unless period documentation is later recovered. The relationship is technically visible; the legal/commercial mechanism remains open. Randy Pfeiffer’s earlier Williams experience gives the architecture useful biographical context, but context is not proof of the business arrangement.

Current MAME preserves two Colony 7 program sets. Their primary program differences are in the first three CPU ROMs; the rest of the preserved ROM structure is largely shared.

This becomes especially interesting beside Taito America’s service documentation. A service bulletin addresses a condition in which a coin inserted during attract mode does not always produce a credit. Taito’s remedy is to replace the first three program ROMs—CS01, CS02 and CS03—with revised parts: - 16-00003-011 - 16-00003-012 - 16-00003-013

The service bulletin therefore proves that an official three-ROM program revision existed. MAME’s two sets likewise differ in CS01 through CS03. That is a strong correspondence, but without ROM labels/checksums tying the service part numbers directly to the dumped files, A03 stops short of declaring that MAME “set 2” is definitively the service-update set.

That unresolved relationship is an excellent future preservation question because it may be answerable through physical ROM labels, board photographs, old replacement kits, or checksum comparison if original service ROMs surface.

The recovered eight-page Taito America service-bulletin packet is one of the strongest pieces of evidence saved from the frozen project.

Service Tip 81-10: video counters

Taito reported that some 74161 parts were not fast enough for the video-counter role and recommended Signetics or Texas Instruments 74161 components for replacement. This shows that nominally equivalent logic parts could produce practical timing failures in the cabinet.

Service Tip 81-5: explosion fragments, false game-over and crystal sensitivity

Reported symptoms include a fragment of an explosion remaining on screen, a false end-of-game condition, and video distortion when a hand is brought near the crystal. Taito’s solution stabilizes the timing circuit by changing component values, including resistor and capacitor changes on the CPU board.

Service Tip 82-13: dot/freeze and synchronization faults

Later advice addresses a dot appearing on screen or intermittent freeze-up. Taito instructs technicians to apply the earlier timing change, add pull-up resistors to CAS/RAS timing points where needed, and optionally add a capacitor. The bulletin also identifies 74161 positions associated with tearing, picture rolling, reset behavior and horizontal synchronization problems.

Attract-mode coin ROM update

Another bulletin documents a software problem: inserting a coin during attract mode may fail to generate a credit. The prescribed repair is replacement of CS01, CS02 and CS03. This is direct evidence of a post-release program correction and should be linked in the technical narrative to—but not automatically equated with—the two program sets preserved by MAME.

The scans carry an ARCARC.COM watermark. Preserve it. Do not crop or retouch the watermark away.

The surviving control panel and MAME input definition agree on the core arrangement: directional joystick, normal Fire, Mega-Blaster, Eradicator, one-player start, and two-player start. Current MAME maps the four cardinal directions without applying a 4-way restriction, so A04 does not claim a specific physical restrictor type.

Operator settings include two or three initial colonies and selectable low/high bonus thresholds. The bonus level is adjusted upward when Extended Weaponry is used, as described earlier.

The manual specifies approximately 250 watts at 120 VAC, 60 Hz for the upright. That is the appropriate U.S. service specification to publish with the cabinet technical snapshot.

The dedicated upright is a strong Arcade Side B subject because its physical design is more memorable than the game’s modern fame would suggest.

The side art uses a dramatic science-fiction composition rather than generic geometric striping. The control panel clearly labels the colony’s unusual weapon systems. A dedicated marquee survives at useful resolution. The flyer front foregrounds “INTRODUCING COLONY 7” and “Extended Weaponry,” making the monetization feature part of the product identity rather than a hidden operator option.

Recommended visual hierarchy for the eventual website: 1. Flyer front as a period opener or top historical illustration. 2. Full upright survivor photograph early in the cabinet section. 3. Control-panel detail alongside the weapon explanation. 4. Side art or marquee as a visual break. 5. Flyer back beside the Extended Weaponry discussion because it contains the direct sales pitch and title-specific cabinet specifications. 6. One or two manual/service pages in the technical section. 7. Trimline evidence as a smaller preservation sidebar unless a better full-resolution image is located.

Do not enlarge the 240-pixel gameplay captures or tiny Trimline thumbnails as if they were hero images. They are evidence and supporting illustrations.

Late 1980 / early 1981 — Trimline context. Taito America already had a compact Trimline product concept in the market before Colony 7. U.S. Trimline trademark history and Space Invaders Trimline advertising establish the family context.

June 1981 — pre-release. Trade coverage describes Taito America as preparing sample shipments of its next scheduled video game, Colony 7, and says it will be available in upright and Trimline form.

July 1981 — release. This is the preferred release month. July 18 Cash Box coverage presents the game and its paid Extended Weaponry feature and says both cabinet forms are available through Taito’s distributor network. Taito America equipment lists subsequently record both Colony 7 and Colony 7 Trimline as 7/81.

1981–1982 — field revisions. Taito America service tips document timing faults, display/freeze behavior and revised program ROMs.

Later preservation era. The game survives through ROM dumping/emulation, dedicated cabinet survivors, scanned manuals/schematics and later Taito compilations.

Colony 7 did not generate the kind of sequel line or mass cultural recognition associated with Taito’s largest hits. Its legacy is quieter.

Later Taito-associated compilation material has described Colony 7 as an inspiration for Imagic’s Atlantis. The resemblance is understandable: both center on defending a vulnerable city or colony from attacking spacecraft, and both make survival of structures central to the visual drama. Treat the inspiration connection as later retrospective documentation, not as a recovered 1981 claim from Imagic.

The game has also survived through later Taito compilation/emulation releases, helping keep it playable after original cabinets became uncommon. Preservation sources, MAME support, owner-manual scans and surviving dedicated machines now provide a substantially better historical record than the game’s commercial fame might suggest.

What makes Colony 7 worth profiling is the combination: a documented July 1981 Taito America release; an emergency development story associated with Threshold Research and Randy Pfeiffer; a Williams/Defender-related technical architecture; a dedicated full-size upright and official compact Trimline; a battlefield where colony infrastructure matters mechanically; unusual special weapons; direct factory evidence of field fixes and ROM revision; and the remarkable extra-coin Extended Weaponry system.

The following are safe as normal publication facts: - Colony 7 is a 1981 Taito America arcade game. - July 1981 is supported by Taito America trade equipment lists and July trade coverage. - It was sold in upright and Trimline dedicated cabinets. - The Colony 7 flyer itself supplies dimensions for both cabinet styles. - The upright manual specifies a 19-inch color monitor and approximately 250 W power consumption. - Extended Weaponry requires additional payment and increases the destructive area/power of the weapons. - Mega-Blaster and Eradicator are normal limited defensive systems and should not be misdescribed as individually purchased weapons. - The player defends colony structures and a destructible shield from the Jarvians. - Taito America issued multiple technical service tips and at least one official three-ROM software revision. - Surviving schematics show a 6809-family architecture; MAME places the game in the Williams 6809 driver and uses the Defender-family machine configuration. - Current MAME preserves two program sets.

Use attribution for: - Threshold Research as developer if written in a formal credit line: preservation research supports it, while the surviving Taito flyer/manual in this pack do not carry a Threshold logo. - Randy Pfeiffer’s five-week development story: later first-person recollection. - High-score initials and their meanings: Randy Pfeiffer’s later recollection. - Atlantis inspiration: later Taito-associated/secondary documentation. - Any statement that the hardware was “licensed from Williams”: not established. Prefer “Williams/Defender-derived or closely related architecture.” - Any claim matching the attract-mode service ROM revision to a specific numbered MAME set: plausible but unproven by recovered evidence. - Any production or sales number: unknown.

Research is complete enough for publication, but these remain legitimate open questions rather than blockers: 1. What exact contractual arrangement allowed Taito America to use the Williams/Defender-related hardware architecture? 2. Can the service bulletin’s replacement CS01–CS03 part numbers be positively mapped to one of the two preserved MAME program sets? 3. Can a full-resolution period or survivor photograph of a dedicated Colony 7 Trimline be found? 4. Are factory production totals or distributor sales numbers preserved anywhere? 5. Can additional period credits identify exact hardware, art and sound contributors beyond Randy Pfeiffer’s recollection and Doug Hughes reference? 6. Does surviving factory material define whether “Cannon Bummer” was the intended game name while “Bomber” was marketing shorthand, or vice versa?

None prevents accurate publication. They should remain documented rather than filled with speculation.

Colony 7 is the kind of arcade game that becomes more interesting the deeper the surviving evidence is examined. Its surface identity—a 1981 defense shooter—is only the beginning. Underneath are a vulnerable colony whose structures matter, converging anti-matter fire, limited emergency weapons, a compact official Trimline cabinet, a board architecture with a strong Williams lineage, an emergency-development recollection from Randy Pfeiffer, post-release factory timing and ROM fixes, and a paid power-up that Taito advertised to operators as a path to higher scores and greater revenue.

The game’s obscurity has hidden a surprisingly rich story. That makes it an excellent Arcade Side B subject: not because it was secretly one of 1981’s biggest hits, but because it shows how much experimentation could live inside a machine that history mostly passed by.