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Locomotion (arcade game)
Encyclopedia
Loco-Motion is an arcade game
developed by Konami
in 1982
and licensed to Centuri
. It is considered an early example of a puzzle video game.
by moving tracks which will allow it to pick up passengers.
game where the player can move pieces horizontally or vertically within a frame to complete a picture. However, the presence of a constantly moving locomotive complicates matters. The player controls the playfield and the aim is to guide the locomotive around the tracks to collect the passengers waiting at the stations located around the edges of the screen.
The player uses a joystick
to slide a piece of the track into the vacant square. The locomotive is always moving, but the player has the option of making it move faster to get to the passengers more quickly by using a button next to the joystick. The player must avoid crashing the locomotive into the dead-end barricades (shown as a yellow 'X'), and also ensure that it does not run into the edge of the gap or a barrier at the playfield edge, either of which costs a life.
Eventually, the passengers waiting too long at one of the stations will be replaced by a countdown timer. If the player collects the passengers before the timer counts down, the value of the counter is added to the score. If the timer reaches zero, a "Crazy Train" is added to the track and the player must prevent the locomotive from crashing into it. When there is more than one Crazy Train on screen, there is the possibility to make them crash into each other and score a bonus. However, doing so will create a new pair of dead ends on the playfield, or destroy a station if the collision occurs inside it. If a bonus counter reaches zero at an unoccupied station, it will be destroyed.
As the player moves the pieces of track around, the route the locomotive will take is highlighted in yellow up to any dead end.
On higher levels, there are special pieces of track that have one entrance and three different exits. The player cannot choose which exit the locomotive takes from these, as it is picked randomly. Bonus points are awarded each time the locomotive crosses one of these pieces of track, but they do make it tricky to plan a route to a station.
A level is cleared when there are no more passengers to pick up, and the player then moves onto the next level which is a different layout, bigger or smaller with more dead ends. Also, the bonus stations appear more frequently and, on later levels, one or more Crazy Trains will be on screen at the outset.
If the player creates a closed loop of track and rides on it for several seconds, a "Loop Sweeper" appears which moves around the loop behind it. If the Sweeper reaches the locomotive, the player loses a life. Sweepers can be crashed into each other or into Crazy Trains to destroy them.
An extra life is awarded at 10,000 points.
Bonus station points are randomly determined, with a beginning high of 2,470 points.
and the Tomy Tutor
were among the platforms to which Locomotion was ported. Meanwhile Activision
was working on a similar game called Happy Trails which included strikingly similar gameplay. Happy Trails was released prior to Locomotion and saw great reviews, forcing Intellivision to release Locomotion at a reduced price.
The MSX
saw a port from Konami themselves under the name Crazy Train.
M-network also made a prototype for the Atari 2600
video game system. However on July 5, 1983, the release of the game was cancelled for unknown reasons.
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
developed by Konami
Konami
is a Japanese leading developer and publisher of numerous popular and strong-selling toys, trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, slot machines, arcade cabinets and video games...
in 1982
1982 in video gaming
-Events:* December 27 - Starcade, a video game television game show, debuts on TBS in the United States.-Notable releases:*October 13 - Mystique releases the Custer's Revenge adult video game for the Atari 2600 home console....
and licensed to Centuri
Centuri
Centuri, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami....
. It is considered an early example of a puzzle video game.
Overview
The player builds a path for their unstoppable locomotiveLocomotive
A locomotive is a railway vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. The word originates from the Latin loco – "from a place", ablative of locus, "place" + Medieval Latin motivus, "causing motion", and is a shortened form of the term locomotive engine, first used in the early 19th...
by moving tracks which will allow it to pick up passengers.
Description
Loco-Motion is basically an updated version of a sliding block puzzleSliding puzzle
A sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a puzzle that challenges a player to slide usually flat pieces along certain routes to establish a certain end-configuration....
game where the player can move pieces horizontally or vertically within a frame to complete a picture. However, the presence of a constantly moving locomotive complicates matters. The player controls the playfield and the aim is to guide the locomotive around the tracks to collect the passengers waiting at the stations located around the edges of the screen.
The player uses a joystick
Joystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
to slide a piece of the track into the vacant square. The locomotive is always moving, but the player has the option of making it move faster to get to the passengers more quickly by using a button next to the joystick. The player must avoid crashing the locomotive into the dead-end barricades (shown as a yellow 'X'), and also ensure that it does not run into the edge of the gap or a barrier at the playfield edge, either of which costs a life.
Eventually, the passengers waiting too long at one of the stations will be replaced by a countdown timer. If the player collects the passengers before the timer counts down, the value of the counter is added to the score. If the timer reaches zero, a "Crazy Train" is added to the track and the player must prevent the locomotive from crashing into it. When there is more than one Crazy Train on screen, there is the possibility to make them crash into each other and score a bonus. However, doing so will create a new pair of dead ends on the playfield, or destroy a station if the collision occurs inside it. If a bonus counter reaches zero at an unoccupied station, it will be destroyed.
As the player moves the pieces of track around, the route the locomotive will take is highlighted in yellow up to any dead end.
On higher levels, there are special pieces of track that have one entrance and three different exits. The player cannot choose which exit the locomotive takes from these, as it is picked randomly. Bonus points are awarded each time the locomotive crosses one of these pieces of track, but they do make it tricky to plan a route to a station.
A level is cleared when there are no more passengers to pick up, and the player then moves onto the next level which is a different layout, bigger or smaller with more dead ends. Also, the bonus stations appear more frequently and, on later levels, one or more Crazy Trains will be on screen at the outset.
If the player creates a closed loop of track and rides on it for several seconds, a "Loop Sweeper" appears which moves around the loop behind it. If the Sweeper reaches the locomotive, the player loses a life. Sweepers can be crashed into each other or into Crazy Trains to destroy them.
An extra life is awarded at 10,000 points.
Scoring
| Action | Score |
|---|---|
| Travelling across bonus lines (lines which connect at junction) | 150 points |
| Picking up passengers at each railroad stop | 100 points |
| Crossing each block of train track to reach railroad stops | 10 points per block |
| Completing a level without any stations being destroyed ("Perfect Clear") | 5,000 points |
| Completing a level after some stations are destroyed ("Clear") | 1,000 points |
Bonus station points are randomly determined, with a beginning high of 2,470 points.
Ports
The IntellivisionIntellivision
The Intellivision is a video game console released by Mattel in 1979. Development of the console began in 1978, less than a year after the introduction of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. The word intellivision is a portmanteau of "intelligent television"...
and the Tomy Tutor
Tomy Tutor
The Tomy Tutor was a home computer produced by the Japanese toymaker Tomy. It was architecturally similar- but not identical- to the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A, and used a similar 16-bit CPU. The computer was launched on the UK and European markets in late 1983...
were among the platforms to which Locomotion was ported. Meanwhile Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
was working on a similar game called Happy Trails which included strikingly similar gameplay. Happy Trails was released prior to Locomotion and saw great reviews, forcing Intellivision to release Locomotion at a reduced price.
The MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
saw a port from Konami themselves under the name Crazy Train.
M-network also made a prototype for the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
video game system. However on July 5, 1983, the release of the game was cancelled for unknown reasons.
External links
- Technical information on Loco-Motion
- http://www.centuri.net/locomotion.htmLoco-Motion entry at the CenturiCenturiCenturi, based in Hialeah, Florida, was one of the top six suppliers of coin operated video game machinery in the United States. Many of the machines distributed in the US under the Centuri name were licensed from overseas manufacturers, particularly Konami....
.net Arcade Database