Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom is an early arcade game developed by Sega for VCO Object hardware. It uses the Buck Rogers comic book/television license, and stands as one of Sega’s first licensed video games, along with Star Trek: Strategic Operations Simulator, both debuting in 1982. The game is adapted from the earlier Zoom 909, a largely identical game seen predominantly in Japan.

You’re Buck Rogers, and you’re on a mission to stop a wandering “warrior-world” called the Planet of Zoom before it reaches Earth. Like a certain moon-sized space station, the Planet of Zoom devastates everything in its path. The Planet of Zoom is controlled by a source ship. Destroying the ship liberates the Planet of Zoom, saving Earth in the process.

The game has only eight stages (“sectors”), with the mothership as the final (and only) boss. Clearing the game puts you on the next loop, with the message “NICE PLAY, GO ON.” The arcade actually displays how many loops you’ve run (labeled as “rounds”) as well.

At the start of the game (and at each loop), the source ship you fight at the end zooms past, and leaves a missile in its wake. It’s flying higher than you can shoot so you can’t damage it at all.