Gorf
1981 · Fixed Shooter · Arcade
Overview
A 1981 Midway shooter that packed five different games into one cabinet — including takes on Space Invaders and Galaxian — and taunted players with a synthesised robot voice.
Deep Dive
Gorf was developed by Dave Nutting Associates and published by Midway Manufacturing in 1981. Rather than a single kind of stage, it cycles through five distinct missions, one modelled on Space Invaders and another on Galaxian, so a single game felt like several. It was also one of the talking arcade games of its era: a speech chip gives voice to the Gorfian robot, which insults and threatens the player during play. An unusual rule let players buy two extra lives per coin before starting, for up to seven lives in total.
Developer Story
Gorf was designed by Jamie Fenton at Midway in 1981. It was notable for multiple distinct gameplay modes presented as a sequential campaign: Astro Battles (after Space Invaders), Laser Attack, Galaxians, Space Warp and the Flag Ship. Each section had different rules and mechanics. The game also featured speech synthesis, with the computer taunting players between missions.
Did You Know?
- Gorf taunted players in synthesised speech — 'Long live Gorf!', 'Got you, space cadet!' — one of the earliest arcade games to talk to the player.
- The game consisted of five distinct play modes in sequence, making it feel like five games in one cabinet.
- GORF stood for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force" — a backronym invented after the name was chosen.
- The space warp level used a tunnel-vision zooming effect rare in 1981 arcade games.
Sources & further reading
- Gorf — Wikipedia
