Cyber Sled

Namco's updated version of the classic Battlezone game with living opponents! From the Namco supplied information:It is the year 2067. Huge cities have been built with the stench of progress and decay. A violent fighting game grows with unprecedented popularity. The tank duels are cold-hearted death matches that whip audiences into a frenzy of much needed enthusiasm and excitement. All contestants strive for the same goal ... To win the tournament and collect it's massive prize.

Choosing one of several distinctive "contestants," each with his/her own distinctive 'sled, you try to convince the competition (by using rockets and machine guns against them) to allow you to have the ultimate prize.

Players drive around a city-like arena, shooting at the opposing player and picking up power-ups along the way (more missiles, special radar, shield recharges, etc.). Some buildings can only take a small amount of damage before being destroyed. If you shoot your guns too long, they overheat and you can't use them until they cool down. If you shoot all your missiles you need to find a powerup to get more. Learning to circle (move sideways left or right to keep your guns pointed at the enemy) is essential to succeed at the game.

A few of the early cabinets brought to America after the game was released in Japan have bizzare and humorous changes to the storyline text, mostly in the form of bad grammer.

Cyber Sled was only released as a dedicated two-player sit-down cabinet. The plastic mouldings around the screens and the twin joysticks give the illusion of piloting a futuristic tank. The player-one position is all blue, and the player-two position is all red. Unlike later sit-down style "driving" cabinets, the seats are not adjustable.

Although released only as a dedicated two-player cabinet, the game can be run as a single player game with only one board set connected to the wiring harness. Doing so of course removes the "head-to-head" aspect of the game.

Because of the large number of polygons in the game and the processing power required, the game also requires cooling fans to blow across the game boards. Without these, the game will freeze up, or cease functioning completely. Although the dedicated game ships with two fans per boardset, the game seems to function okay with only one.