You are a superhero saving people from attack from the sky. You have to shoot the attackers before they capture your people (enemies attack from the sky, people are on the ground). If they capture your citizens, they try to fly away with them. At this point you can still save them by shooting the captor and catching the citizen before they fall to the ground and die anyway. After you catch them, you gently set them down. The enemy can also throw things at your citizens (cars, chunks from the buildings, etc) and you can either shoot or catch this falling debris to keep your citizens safe. Additionally, they place things on the ground that will kill your citizens if they run into them (barbifry!) It's a little like Missile Command wherein you don't ever die, you simply play each round and collect bonus at the end for how many citizens still remain. The game is over when all your citizens are goners. So you protect your citizens and play on like you protect cities in Missile Command. The control is a little herky-jerky and you can change it from TB to JS in MAME. Overall, very unique and lots of fun.
The game did go out on test back in the day at more than one location and with more than one name.
ReplyDeleteOne of the test sights was Just Games, Inc. in Downers Grove, IL - a place Gottlieb tested a bunch of games at, many of which ended up getting cancelled when the company was sold and the new owners didn't want anything to do with the video side of the company and just wanted the pinball.
I remember it vividly as it was one of my favorite games at the arcade when it was there and it had a small group of fans at the arcade who liked it (myself being its biggest supporter). It was originally called "Guardian" and it was there for at least a month or so until they pulled it and brought another game to test. Later it came back and I think it was either caled "Protector" or it may have been called "Argus" at that point. I was happy to see it back. After another month or so they pulled it again and I never saw it again. I was ecstatic to see it was in MAME and not lost forever and it is one of my most played games on my MAME cabinet, a cabinet I got largely because this game was playable in MAME.
Other games the company tested I remember playing as a kid was: Tylz, Insector (another one I really liked), Wiz Wars, Knightmare, and some baseball game. All of these games are in MAME.
A funny story regarding the gottlieb test games: one Saturday while hanging out at the arcade a rep from the company came to check on their test games and she started asking me questions about the games, what i liked and didn't like about them and various other game related questions. When we were done she told me that in a few years when I was older and out of school I should go to work for a game company as she was impressed with my knowledge of games I guess. At the time I just had big eyes thinking "yeah right like that would ever really happen". Fast forward 11 years and I ended up working in the game industry, a job that I completely fell into without planning.
Anyway, Argus is a great game, and one that more people should check out. It's a shame it wasn't officially released.