Moon Patrol

1982 · Shooter · Arcade

Overview

Moon Patrol (1982) is Irem's scrolling lunar buggy game, an early showcase of parallax scrolling: jump craters and shoot forward and upward at once.

Deep Dive

Moon Patrol puts the player in a six-wheeled buggy crossing the lunar surface, jumping craters and mines while firing ahead at rocks and upward at attacking craft. Layers of scenery scroll at different speeds behind the action, one of the earliest arcade uses of parallax scrolling to suggest depth. A progress bar tracks the buggy through lettered checkpoints, giving the run a clear structure. Irem developed it and Williams distributed it in North America.

Developer Story

Moon Patrol was developed by Irem in 1982. It introduced two simultaneous scrolling axes — horizontal ground movement and a parallax background — making it one of the first games to use parallax scrolling to create depth. Players drove a lunar rover and could fire both forward and upward simultaneously. It was also one of the first games to display level progress with a map showing the player's position.

Did You Know?

Moon Patrol was one of the first arcade games to use parallax scrolling — background layers moving at different speeds to suggest depth, a technique used in countless side-scrollers since.
Players could fire both forward (at ground obstacles) and upward (at aircraft) simultaneously — requiring two-directional threat management.
A progress map at the bottom of the screen showed players exactly where they were in the level — an early HUD navigation element.
The game's checkpoint system divided levels into named sections, giving players a sense of structured progression unusual for 1982.

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