When Irem released Moon Patrol in 1982 (licensed to Williams Electronics in North America), the landscape of arcade games was heavily dominated by single-screen fixed shooters like Space Invaders and Galaga . Designed by legendary designer Takashi Nishiyama—who would later go on to create Kung-Fu Master and the original Street Fighter — Moon Patrol fundamentally transformed how players perceived motion on a 2D screen. Parallax Scrolling: A Visual Revolution
: The vehicle features 3 unique pairs of wheels that realistically conform and bounce along the rough, jagged moon craters, adding physical weight to the gameplay. The Two Legendary Courses
The game maps out progress chronologically using letters of the alphabet from as checkpoints. These checkpoints are divided into two distinct campaigns: Course Type Target Audience Primary Obstacles Environment Design Beginner Course Newcomers & Intermediates Regular craters, basic rocks, standard aerial fleets Bright, colorful, forgiving checkpoint intervals Champion Course Hardcore Arcade Veterans Arcade Archives MOON PATROL -01003000097FE800--...
You can play Moon Patrol on MAME emulators or cheap plug-and-play joysticks, but the series is a different beast. Hamster Corp treats these games like museum artifacts.
| Platform | Release Date | File Size | Multiplayer | | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- | | | March 22, 2018 | 82 MB | Up to 2 players (alternating) | | PlayStation 4 | June 12, 2018 | ~100 MB | Up to 2 players (alternating) | When Irem released Moon Patrol in 1982 (licensed
). Below is the standard product description and key details for this title: Moon Patrol
: A strict, locked-down game mode that disables cheats, save states, and setting alterations to provide an even playing field for tracking high scores. The Two Legendary Courses The game maps out
The Arcade Archives series by is famous for bringing classic arcade games to modern platforms with meticulous accuracy. The Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 versions of Moon Patrol are pixel-perfect emulations of the original IREM arcade version.
In MOON PATROL, players take on the role of a lunar patrol officer tasked with defending the Moon's surface from an alien invasion. The game is set on a modular, grid-based map, with the player's spacecraft able to move left and right, jump, and shoot. The objective is to clear each level of enemy aliens, while avoiding obstacles and collecting fuel and points.
The series, produced by , includes modern quality-of-life improvements: