Mad Planets

Mad Planets is a 1983 arcade shooter from Gottlieb in which the player fends off angry planets and moons attacking from all directions. The game was designed and programmed by Kan Yabumoto,^[1][2] with art by Jeff Lee and sound by David D. Thiel.^[1] Lee and Thiel previously worked on Q*bert for Gottlieb.^[3]

Gameplay

The player uses a flight-style joystick to move a spaceship around the screen, a rotary knob to orient it, and a trigger on the stick to fire. Planets appear at the start of a level and begin growing. They can be destroyed prior to reaching full size and sprouting moons. Once a planet has moons, it's shielded until all its moons have been launched at the player's ship.^[4] A planet that has lost all of its moons becomes angry and charges the player.^[5]

Floating astronauts appear in mini bonus rounds after every third level, then every fourth after level twelve.^[6] They can be collected by flying over them. Orbiting comets pick up speed the longer they go without being shot. Comets increase in value by 100 points, to a maximum of 1000, until a comet leaves the screen or the level ends.^[6]

If a wave is completed by destroying all planets before they reach full size, a substantial bonus is awarded.^[7]

Clones

Martech published two clones for home computers: Crazy Comets and its sequel Mega Apocalypse.^[8] Crazy Comets even uses the same title screen logo as Mad Planets, but with "Crazy" replacing "Mad" and "Comets" replacing "Planets."

References