Elevator Action
1983 · Platform / Shooter · Arcade
Overview
Elevator Action (1983) is Taito's spy game, in which Agent 17 works down a 30-storey building by elevator, collecting secret documents from behind red doors before escaping by car.
Deep Dive
Agent 17, "Otto", enters a 30-storey building from the roof and must reach the ground floor. Secret documents behind red doors are worth 500 points each, and once all of them are taken he escapes in a waiting car. Enemy agents can be shot, jump-kicked, hit with falling light fixtures or crushed with elevators. Taking too long sets off an alarm that makes enemies more aggressive and elevators slower, and trying to leave with documents still uncollected sends Otto back up to them.
Developer Story
Toshio Kono designed the game, with music by Yoshio Imamura. Taito released it in Japan in June 1983 and North America in July. Conversions followed for the Famicom (1985), MSX, SG-1000, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64, and Elevator Action Returns reached arcades in 1994.
Did You Know?
- It was Taito's first game sold as a conversion kit in North America.
- It was one of the five highest-grossing arcade games of 1984 in American street locations.
Sources & further reading
- Elevator Action — Wikipedia
