Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Gorf

Description

The player controls a spaceship that must blast its way through five missions, each a different challenge. The game features a pistol grip joystick and robotic speech synthesis that heckles the player during gameplay.

Gorf was produced by Midway Manufacturing Co. in 1981.

Midway Manufacturing Co. released 132 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1959. Midway Manufacturing Co. was based in United States.

Other machines made by Midway Manufacturing Co. during the time period Gorf was produced include: Extra Bases, Space Encounters, Space Invaders II, Rally-X, Bulls Eye Darts, Bosconian, Kick, Kick-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Ms. Pac-Man Plus

Specs

Name	Gorf
Developer	Midway Manufacturing Co. (United States)
Year	1981
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7983
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Shooter
Monitor	Orientation: Vertical Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color
Conversion Class	unique
Game Specific	Gorf Pinout
Dipswitch Settings	Gorf Dipswitch Settings (user contributed)
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player
Controls	Joystick: 8-way stick with trigger - Fire
Sound	Unamplified Mono (requires one-channel amp)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard Cocktail Cabaret/Mini
Bezel	Gorf Bezel Image

Video Clips

Rare Arcade Video Game Cabaret

Gorf Arcade Game

Gorf Arcade Game (1981 Midway Mfg.) - Overview & Gameplay

GORF Arcade Game Review - Bally/Midway 1981 - John's Arcade on the Road!

Bally Midway GORF Arcade Video Game

Game Introduction

The player's goal is to defeat the Gorfian Empire in five separate missions. The first mission is like Space Invaders. The second mission pits the player against two squads of diving ships, each squad has a special ship that fires long laser beams. The third mission is like Galaxian. The fourth mission has the player fight a number of enemies that spiral toward the player shooting fireballs. The fifth mission has the player fight the Gorfian Flagship. The Flagship's shields must first be battered down, then the player must hit the Flagship in a tiny exhaust port in order to destroy it. The game then continues by sending the player through the missions again, which are harder than before. Each time the player destroys the Flagship, the player advances in rank. Starting out as a Space Cadet, the player moves on to Space Captain, Space Colonel, Space General, Space Warrior, and finally Space Avenger. The player's spaceship is equipped with a Quark Laser. This allows the player to cancel a poorly aimed shot and fire another shot. Game allowed player to start with double the amount of normal ships with the deposit of two credits instead of one.

Game Play

Gameplay is pseudo-alternating. Gameplay alternates when a player has successfully completed a mission. Play is then transferred to other player. If player does not complete mission, player continues playing until mission is completed or out of ships.

Gorf KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.61 (19 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.58

Overall Like	4.06
Fun (Social)	3.00
Fun (Solo)	3.78
Collector Desire	3.50

Technical Rating: 3.79

Gameplay	4.11
Graphics	3.71
Originality	3.75
Sound/Music	3.94

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter Eggs

On the Astro Battles screen, the last two invaders can be slowed down to a crawl if you fire like crazy.

On the Laser Attack screen, if you shoot all the enemy ships except for the laser shooters, you can sit forever on the far left hand side of the screen. There were two ROM versions, and this trick only works on the first version.

Images

Trivia

Gorf was such a popular game that it was ported to most of the home console systems and personal computers of the time. One note about these ports was that the third Galaxian mission was removed due to licensing difficulties.

GORF is actually an acronym for Galactic Orbiting Robot Force according to an early flyer.

"Gorf was in fact named for "frog" backwards, but why? "Frog" was Jay Fenton's nickname." -Brett Bilbrey, Ex of Action Graphics, printed in Slap Dash issue 8, May 1999.

Cabinet Information

In addition to the standard sideart and marquee, IGorfI also has a lit, bottom decorative header, much like a marquee. This is located below the control panel. Unfortunately, the control panel was metal with screened on paint which tends to wear off.PTo the right of the screen, the players Space Rank is displayed by a bulb that lights up the appropriate box. As well, the area directly above the screen in backlit. Gorf has a total of five light bulbs for the marquee, and six for the rank display.PThe instructions and graphics on the control panel are not your typical control panel overlay. Instead, they are printed directly onto the metal of the panel. The result is that the graphics will erode and wear with use.

Miscellaneous

This game was designed by Jay Fenton.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Gorf Census

There are 15,272 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,670 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,971 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 515 known instances of this machine owned by Gorf collectors who are active members. Of these, 478 of them are original dedicated machines. 2 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 29 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 20 active VAPS members with a Gorf machines for sale. There are 2 active VAPS members with a Gorf circuit boards for sale.

Wanted - Popular - There are 24 active VAPS members currently looking for Gorf. There are 2 active VAPS members looking for Gorf boards sets.

This game ranks a 80 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 40 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

More! Screens of Fame and Fortune!

1981

Technical

Only the game logic and RAMROM boards are specific to IGorfI. The pattern board, cpu board, and RAM boards can be swapped out with other similar games, such as IWizard Of WorI.P As bulbs burn out, only replace them with low wattage replacements. A wise move may be to replace them with flourescent lights that have standard bulb sockets. Flourescent lights will last longer which makes bulb changes less frequent, produce less heat which causes less damage to the marquees, and consumes less electricity which lowers you energy bill.

Manuals

Parts and Operating Manual - Gorf Manual — **Parts and Operating Manual**
(70 pages, 5.2 MB File)

Schematic - Gorf Manual — **Schematic**
(59 pages, 4.9 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 100; Color photo Price guide: No
Arcade Fever Sellers (ISBN 0762409371) Page: 74; Color photo
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 100; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Upright (db94074624171b02b832a6a1caceb543)

Arcade Map - Play This Game

Our members have reported that Gorf is playable at 1 locations:

Name	Location	State	Country	Details	Check-ins
Bartari	101 Adams Ave, Scranton	Pennsylvania	United States	Bar	0

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