Targ

Targ was a successful 1980 game by Exidy depicting vehicular combat in a future world. The locale is described by the game cabinet as "The Crystal City": it is a simple 9x9 grid of roads demarcated by rectangular buildings. The player, piloting the Wummel, which looks like a small green car, maneuvers through the maze trying to shoot enemies and avoid collisions. Most of the enemies consist of angry-looking red wedges, or "Targs". Occasionally, a small cyan-colored "Spectar Smuggler" will appear; shooting this is worth a significant point bonus. When all the enemies have been destroyed, a bonus is awarded and a new round starts. If the player takes too long to clear the board, the speed of the Targ ships increase until they are traveling faster than the player's Wummel. None of the enemies shoot back. Their sole means of killing the player is ramming in to him. Despite this, the game is quite challenging. Many games of the time were developed by Japanese companies, such as Taito or Namco, and then licensed by Western companies. Targ has the distinction of being one of the rare games that was developed in the west and licensed by a Japanese company — in this case, Sega. Targ sold well enough to spawn a more elaborate sequel, Spectar. The 1982 game Crossfire for the Apple II and Atari platforms is often considered a port of Targ, though it does bears some differences (most notably, the ability of opponents to fire). A closer clone is the TRS-80 Attack Force. A direct port of Targ was developed for the Atari 2600 by CBS Games, but was never released due to the video game crash of 1983.