Wacko is an arcade video game developed and published by Bally Midway in 1982.
It’s a shooter game.
You maneuver Kapt’n Krooz’r around the screen in his spaceship.
The terrain is an orange moon scene, various cartoonish monsters dot the landscape.
You must blast the monsters in pairs to make them vanish.
Later levels introduce even more complex rules as to what can be shot.
You control your ship with the trackball, while using the joystick to aim and shoot.
The controls feel natural with a little practice, but the game quickly becomes very difficult on the higher levels.
Trivia
The game originally had a wizard shooting at cute animals but Bally Midway execs thought it was too cute and needed an edge.
Monsters were designed by Scott Morrison and put in instead.
Plus Bally Midway also called him at the last minute to replace the wizard with the little green alien from “Kozmik Krooz’r”.
The slanted cabinet was an idea by Marvin Glass which required the trackballs to be installed upside down to work properly.
This title takes the prize for having the strangest dedicated cabinet ever made The Wacko cabinet is sloped, both the control panel, and the marquee are set at an angle.
In Wacko, the right side of each being about three inches lower than the left side. This means that the joystick and trackball are both at an angle.
This is the only machine ever made to feature a sloped control panel (a distinction which it will probably keep for a long time).
Staff
Designed and programmed by : Steve Meyer
Graphics by : Scott Morrison
Wacko (Arcade) infos:
| WACKO (ARCADE) | |
|---|---|
| Year | 1982 |
| Developer | Bally Midway |
| Publisher | Bally Midway |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Genre | Shooter |
| System | Bally Midway MCR 2 hardware |
| CPU(s) | Zilog Z80 2.496000 MHz Zilog Z80 2.000000 MHz |
| Video | 512 x 480 (H) 30.000000 Hz |
| Palette colours | 64 |
| Sound | 2 x Speaker Midway SSIO Sound Board 16.000000 MHz 2 x AY-3-8910A PSG 2.000000 MHz 2 Channels |
| Players | 1-2 |
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