1942 (PlayChoice-10)

PlayChoice-10 is an arcade machine which can consist of as many as 10 different games previously available only on the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) home console. The games for this system are in the modular form of circuit boards which are plugged into one of the ten open slots on the PlayChoice-10’s motherboard.

1942 is a vertically scrolling shooter made by Capcom that was released for the arcade in 1984. It was the first game in the 19XX series. It was followed by 1943: The Battle of Midway.

1942 is set in the Pacific theater of World War II. Despite the game being created by Japanese developers, the goal is to reach Tokyo and destroy the entire Japanese air fleet. The player pilots a Lockheed P-38 Lightning dubbed the “Super Ace”. The player has to shoot down enemy planes; to avoid enemy fire, the player can perform a roll or vertical loop. 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.