Moon Patrol: Crater upon crater of hopping fun

Somehow that didn’t sound right. Anyway, after my embarrassing run with Frogger and Space Invaders this past week, I tried my hand at the Flash version of the classic arcade hit Moon Patrol, which was first released in 1982 in the United States.

Here’s a brief background for those standing on the far side of the moon:

Moon Patrol is a classic arcade game by Irem that was first released in 1982. It was licensed to Williams for United States of America distribution.

In the game, the player controls a moon buggy, viewing it from the side, that travels over the moon’s surface. While driving it, obstacles such as craters and mines must be avoided. The buggy is also attacked by UFOs from above and tanks on the ground. Moon Patrol was one of the earliest linear side-scrolling shoot ‘em ups and the first arcade game to feature parallax scrolling.

Anyway, in the game, you take the role of a police officer from the city of Luna, mankind’s first metropolis on the moon. As you may have already surmised, you drive around Sector Nine, home of the “toughest thugs in the galaxy,” with the objective of jumping over craters and getting rid of enemies while you’re at it to earn points.

Needless to say, like my Frogger and Space Invaders run, I sucked at Moon Patrol, failing even to hurdle the first stage. A few more days of playing Moon Patrol might give me a little edge, but I’m not keeping my hopes up.

Aside from the arcade version (and the current Flash animation version), Moon Patrol has been ported to a number of consoles, including the Apple II (on which I played Moon Patrol for hours on end), the Atari 800, 2600 and 5200, the Commodore 64, and the Nintendo Game Boy Color.