1942 is a vertically scrolling shooter game made by Capcom that was released for arcades in 1984. Designed by Yoshiki Okamoto, it was the first game in the 194X series, and was followed by 1943: The Battle of Midway.

Gameplay – 1942

The player pilots a Lockheed P-38 Lightning dubbed the “Super Ace”. The player has to shoot down enemy planes; to avoid enemy fire, the player can perform a roll or vertical loop. During the game, the player may collect a series of power-ups, one of them allowing the plane to be escorted by two other smaller fighters in a Tip Tow formation. Enemies included: Kawasaki Ki-61s, Mitsubishi A6M Zeros and Kawasaki Ki-48s. The boss plane is a Nakajima G10N.

The game has “a special roll button that allows players to avoid dangerous situations by temporarily looping out of” the playfield.^[7] In addition to the standard high score, it also has a separate percentage high score, recording the best ratio of enemy fighters to enemies shot down.^[1]

Development

The game was designed by Yoshiki Okamoto. The game’s main goal was to be easily accessible for players. This is why they decided to use a World War II theme. 1942 was also the first Capcom game designed with Western markets in mind. That was why they decided to have the player pilot an American P-38 fighter plane, to appeal to the American market.^[8] The game is loosely based on the Battle of Midway, which was a turning point in the Pacific War when the Americans began defeating the Japanese.^[1]

Ports

The game was released to the MSX, NEC PC-8801, FM-7, and Sharp X1. It was released to the Famicom in 1985 in Japan and North America in 1986. The Famicom version was developed by Micronics.

A Game Boy Color version was also released in North America in May 2000 and the PAL region in the year 2001.

The European games publisher Elite Systems later released versions for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and Commodore 64.

The music of the Commodore 64 version is based on the main verse of Ron Goodwin’s 633 Squadron movie score,^[9] with arrangement by Mark Cooksey.^[10]

1942 Marquee