Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom

In 1982, Sega released the arcade video game “Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom.” It was a forward-scrolling rail shooter in which the player controls a spaceship from a third-person perspective behind the character’s back to destroy enemy ships and avoid obstacles; the game stood out for its fast pseudo-3D scaling and detailed sprites. The game would later influence the 1985 Sega hit “Space Harrier,” which in turn shaped the 1993 Nintendo hit “Star Fox.” Buck is never seen in the game, except presumably in the illustration on the side of the arcade cabinet, and the only real connections to Buck Rogers are the use of the name and the space setting. Home versions were released for the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, Atari XE, ColecoVision, Coleco Adam, Intellivision, MSX, and Sega SG-1000, as well as for the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, Apple II, and ZX Spectrum computers. A version for the IBM PC with CGA graphics was also available.