Interstellar Laser Fantasy

The sit-down game used four amplified audio channels using two-way speakers. Two sets of front, two sets of rear and a large woofer under the seat. The audio channels were front, rear left, rear right and the woofer. The game board had a stereo audio output as well as the stereo from the laser disc player. The stand-up cabinet only used two speakers in a stereo set-up. The control panel was illuminated and had interesting futuristic designs. The trigger joystick control moved in a left and right direction as well as a right and left twist movement flap control. The buttons had corresponding lights on the control panel. They would light when the button was depressed and enabled to function, in the part of the game being played. The seat was cushioned and the cabinet had the appearance of a DX version, for its time. Cabinet dimensions, height 1680mm, Depth 2055mm, width 730mm, and the weight was 200kg.

You are Frald Rancer and control a space ship which must journey from your home planet to outer space to defeat enemy invaders. Once all the enemies are defeated then return home. The game moves in a forward direction where the screen objects move towards and down to the player. Approaching enemy ships are small, in the distance, and become larger and move faster as they approach the player. The player controls a fighter at the bottom of the screen, which can only move from side to side. Shots can be fired at a diagonal, as well as straight, by twisting the joystick from side to side. At certain stages, ground targets will appear and can be destroyed by using the "Burn" button. The laser disc generated backgrounds are largely non-interactive during game play. They form the backgrounds on which the game is played on. Scenes do work in with the backgrounds, however that is the extent. Some backgrounds appear as they should have elements of interactively, however, were not used in the release of the game. These include scenes where the player is going through an asteroid field and asteroids fly towards the player. Another scene is in the crystal caverns, where there are many obstacles which could have been made to be avoided. These are only two of many scenes which could have had interactive elements. The game may have been decided to have been too hard to play with these background obstacles and computer fighters to play. Hence removing the background interactively to make the game more playable. The game starts with the player in Frald Rancer's home city, then taking off into outer space via a fly-by of the city. The backgrounds are very Sci-Fi and are fantasy themed. They are very interesting, more so than the game. The music from the laser disc also complements the laser disc video very well and makes up for the sometimes annoying, computer generated sounds.

The monitor was made by Funai, who also made televisions back in 1983 and at least until 1987, if not to this day. The game was designed by Gakken and manufactured by Funai. The laser disc was pressed by Pioneer and was a single sided, metalbacked laser disc. Pioneer No. F2560J6. The problem with determining the name of this game is that the name of the game is made like a graphical logo. On the PCB ROMs and disc label, where it would have been too hard to reproduce the namelogo from the LD disc, they wrote Interstellar. There is also no Fantasy in the name. That would have came from the writing under the control panel upright, attraction panel under the name sitdown or manual where Laser Fantasy was written. It was never mentioned in the game.