Gyruss, a shoot ’em up arcade game developed by Yoshiki Okamoto and released by Konami in 1983, features a contemporary Atari 2600 port by Parker Brothers. The game employs one-point perspective graphics, with the vanishing point at the screen’s center. The player’s spaceship moves along the screen’s edge in a circular path, with all shots converging at the vanishing point.
Most enemies are spacecraft that must be eliminated to finish a level. They emerge from the screen’s center or edges, moving in swirling patterns, and can shoot or collide with the player’s ship. After their deployment pattern, they hover near the center and occasionally attack the player. Enemy ships eventually fly away if not destroyed.
Other enemies include satellites, asteroids, and laser beam generators, which appear sporadically and disappear if not destroyed. Satellites emerge in groups of three and shoot at the player, with the central satellite providing a weapon upgrade when destroyed. Asteroids grant a small point bonus when shot, while laser beam generators can be deactivated by destroying one of the two generator segments.
The game begins with “2 WARPS TO NEPTUNE” and progresses through various planets, each requiring one fewer warp. Upon reaching a planet, a bonus round allows players to destroy enemy ships for extra points without being destroyed themselves. The game continues through Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, and Earth, with three warps per planet, before looping back to the beginning.
Every 10th stage, starting with stage one, enemies do not fire on the player when entering the screen. After Earth’s bonus stage, a rapid “3 WARPS TO NEPTUNE” level must be completed to return to the game’s start. Extra lives are awarded, but the frequency varies and no additional lives are granted after scoring over 999,990 points.
(Source: Wikipedia)