Barrier

Vectorbeam/Cinematronics, 1979

Very odd game, this, comparable to say portable LED games of the era but not to arcade games. But does makes sense once you know a bit about the history behind it: this started out as a learning experience for a new programmer at Vectorbeams and when they were contractually in a bind to provide another game to Cinematronics they turned Barrier over to them.

Many decades later this also turned out to be a convenient thing for other reasons: it is the smallest ROM size for a ccpu game, upright just like a Vectrex so was the first thing which appealed to me to translate.

Input

Attract

• 2: start two player game
• 4: start one player game

In-game

Joystick to move around

Options

• Grid Calibration (Expert Mode – Main Page / Extra Calibration)
• Lives: 3 / 5
• Refresh: 38Hz / 76 Hz
• Reset Highscores
• Game Info: ”                           Welcome to Barrier, the bronze-age vector arcade game by Vectorbeam/Cinematronics. This is one weird game but since it is so old – the entire game just uses 4096 bytes of ROM – it was the perfect starting point to develop my own emulation toolset for the CCPU.               And it is already in portrait mode so perfect for the Vectrex.             The game itself is uniquely strange and does remind me of those late 70s LED games I remember – not surprising since I have read the ‘Tim Skelly’ Cinematronics/Vectorbeam history: \”One day Jim Pierce walked into the lab with a Mattell handheld football game. This was the first handheld game and extremely popular, despite being incredibly simple, with just a few LEDs for a display. Jim thought we should turn it into a video game. I told him that it would certainly stink as a video game and would probably mean a law suit from Mattell. He forgot about it for a while, but when it became clear that Rob had run out of things to do, Jim talked me into letting Rob program it strictly as a learning exercise. That game was Blitz, later Barrier. To make Jim happy, we put it out on test. It did very poorly, to put it nicely, and we stuffed it in the closet.          […]           Speed Freak […] was a good game, but Vectorbeam wasn’t selling enough to keep the assembly lines going. They needed something to build and sell, soon.                     I know this because I was in the room when Bill Cravens visited Cinematronics, looking for something to build and sell, soon. Cinematronics sold him Blitz/Barrier and we all laughed our asses off. \””

Localization

//NAME="BARRIER"
//

GERMAN[] = {
    { 0, 0, "Gitterkalibrierung" },
    { 0, 0, 0}
};

FRENCH[] = {
    { 0, 0, "Calibration de la Zone de Jeu" },
    { 0, 0, "                           Bienvenue dans Barrier, le jeu d'arcade vectoriel de 'l'âge du bronze', de Vectorbeam/Cinematronics. C'est un jeu curieux, mais comme il est très ancien - le jeu entier n'utilise que 4096 octets pour sa ROM - ça a été une base idéale pour développer mon propre jeu d'outils d'émulation pour le CCPU (processeur de Cinematronics).               En plus comme il est déjà en mode portrait,  c'est on ne peut mieux pour le Vectrex.             Le jeu lui-même est très particulier et me rappelle ces jeux équipés de diodes électroluminescentes de la fin des années 70 - ce qui ne m'apparaît pas surprenant après avoir lu l'histoire de Tim Skelly Cinematronics/Vectorbeam : \"Un jour, Jim Pierce est entré dans le laboratoire avec un jeu électronique Mattel de poche, sur le thème du football. C'était le premier jeu de ce type; il était extrêmement populaire, bien qu'il fût incroyablement simple, avec seulement quelques diodes en guise d'écran. Jim a pensé que nous devrions le transformer en jeu vidéo. Je lui ai dit que ça sentirait vraiment le roussi si on le sortait comme un jeu vidéo et qu'il faudrait probablement s'attendre à un procès de la part de Mattel. Il l'a mis dans un coin pendant un certain temps, mais lorsqu'il est devenu évident que Rob n'avait plus rien à faire, Jim m'a convaincu de laisser Rob le programmer strictement comme un exercice d'apprentissage. Ce jeu est devenu Blitz, puis Barrier. Pour faire plaisir à Jim, nous l'avons mis en test. Ça a été laborieux pour bien le mettre en place, et puis nous l'avons mis dans un placard.          [...]           Speed Freak [...] était un bon jeu, mais Vectorbeam ne le vendait pas assez bien pour assurer le maintien des chaînes de montage. Vectorbeam avait besoin de quelque chose à produire et à vendre rapidement.                     Je le sais parce que j'étais dans la pièce quand Bill Cravens a visité Cinematronics, à la recherche de quelque chose à produire et à vendre dans les meilleurs délais. C'est alors que Cinematronics lui a vendu Blitz/Barrier et nous avons tous ri aux éclats. \""}
//};

ENGLISH[] = {
    { 0, 0, "Grid Calibration" },
    { 0, 0, "                           Welcome to Barrier, the bronze-age vector arcade game by Vectorbeam/Cinematronics. This is one weird game but since it is so old - the entire game just uses 4096 bytes of ROM - it was the perfect starting point to develop my own emulation toolset for the CCPU.               And it is already in portrait mode so perfect for the Vectrex.             The game itself is uniquely strange and does remind me of those late 70s LED games I remember - not surprising since I have read the 'Tim Skelly' Cinematronics/Vectorbeam history: \"One day Jim Pierce walked into the lab with a Mattell handheld football game. This was the first handheld game and extremely popular, despite being incredibly simple, with just a few LEDs for a display. Jim thought we should turn it into a video game. I told him that it would certainly stink as a video game and would probably mean a law suit from Mattell. He forgot about it for a while, but when it became clear that Rob had run out of things to do, Jim talked me into letting Rob program it strictly as a learning exercise. That game was Blitz, later Barrier. To make Jim happy, we put it out on test. It did very poorly, to put it nicely, and we stuffed it in the closet.          [...]           Speed Freak [...] was a good game, but Vectorbeam wasn't selling enough to keep the assembly lines going. They needed something to build and sell, soon.                     I know this because I was in the room when Bill Cravens visited Cinematronics, looking for something to build and sell, soon. Cinematronics sold him Blitz/Barrier and we all laughed our asses off. \""}
};