Gameplay[]
The player controls a ship with either 8 or 4 fuel cells to defend from waves of pirate ships. The number of fuel cells and abilities of the pirate ships depends on the difficultly settings. Each wave of pirate ships will attempt to grab and remove the player's fuel cells. Each wave consists of a different type of pirate until 6 waves have been destroyed, then the waves begin again faster and with more ships.
Once all the player's fuel cells have been stolen, the game is over. If the player's ship collides with either a pirate ship or pirate's laser fire then they will lose a life. However, lives are unlimited as long as there is at least one fuel cell remaining.
Controls[]
Main Menu
- Choose between one or two players-button one
- Choose level of difficulty (number of fuel cells/abilities of pirate ships)-button two
In-game
- Rotates left or right-joystick or D-pad
- Rotate left-button one
- Rotate right-button two
- Thrust-button three
- Fire-button four
Scoring[]
- Pirate 1-10 points
- Pirate 2-20 points
- Pirate 3-30 points
- Pirate 4-40 points
- Pirate 5-50 points
- Pirate 6-60 points
- Destroy all six types of ships-Bonus +10, destroy all six types of ships again-Bonus +20, etc.
Trivia[]
- Rip Off was one of the 12 games originally released for the Vectrex worldwide, including the USA, Europe and Japan.
- Rip Off was ported to the Vectrex in 1982; however, the original Cinematronics arcade game was released in 1979.
Links/review[]
- Click on the tabber below for a review.
vectrex.nl review
Arcade Rip Off goes down in history as being the first co-operative two-player game. Made in 1979 Rip Off is another masterpiece from Tim Skelly. Rip Off has you the player piloting a pirate destroyer craft with the intent of killing the scavenging pirates who try and steal the 6 or so fuel canisters situated in the middle of the playing field. You need to be deadly accurate as the pirates do their utmost to make sure that the fuel will be added to their deadly arsenal which in turn can be used to maim their enemy. Once one of the pirates grabs a fuel canister it attaches it to itself and proceeds to escape off-screen trying avoid you the foreboding pirate destroyer.
The control panel is set up as the standard Asteroids layout minus the hyperspace button. (Ozedmir 2000) The amazing thing about Rip Off is the artificial intelligence of the pirates and for it's time it is way ahead of any other AI on any game of the era. (Skelly 1999) By the 1980's games like Pacman were developing efficient AI but Rip Off led the way for all future developments thanks to Skelly's genius.
Rip Off has really good sound effects and if you grab a mate serious carnage can be sought on-screen with a minimal amount of slow-down. Again Vectrex games seem to come alive when simultaneous two-player is combined with fast action packed gameplay and good graphics and effects. Very smooth.On ebay for around $20.U.S.
Score 7/10
Review written by Daniel Foot