Gorf (1981 Midway Mfg.)
Click on Marquee for KLOV listing.
The Story: GORF is an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It's a space shooting game consisting of five missions that repeat over and over. This includes variations of Space Invaders and Galaxians, as well as Laser Attack and Space Warp. In the final mission, you have to shoot down the Gorfian flagship with a very precise shot into it's internal reactor. You are awarded a higher rank every time you go thru the five missions, and the difficulty increases. I have to admit, I have never played this game, and I had never seen one in person either. I enjoyed a round or two in MAME and that's about it. I have no memories of this game, so why did I want it? Well, with visions of a "Midway row" in mind, I had already owned a Satan's Hollow, Tron and added Space Zap for good measure. There was just one more piece needed to "fill the void" and this game was it. The cabinet and joystick bear a striking resembelance to Tron and, like most games in the "Midway row", it has some very unique and interesting artwork, most of which is backlit. It also features "Robotic Voice Synthesis" which sounds cool and heckles the player. Add that to the "homage" it pays to many popular games of it's time, and it simply became a "must own" for me.
The Score: This was that last "ellusive" game that I had to find, and after about a month of searching, I found this one on Craigslist in Saint Louis. It was priced at $150 and was advertised as "dead", but complete and in decent shape. The seller sent lots of photos and, aside from a missing piece of trim, it seems legit and looks nice. Only one problem, I was tied up in other projects at the time, and a trip to Saint Louis just wasn't happening anytime soon. Luckily I have a good friend who owns and operates a business in the South City area, and this game happened to be a few blocks away. I phoned in a favor and my friend graciously agreed to pick it up and store it until I could make the trip a few weeks later. Thanks Brian.
The Score: "The lights are on but nobody's home" is how you would hear an actioneer describe this game, meaning the game was getting power but showed no other signs of life. Gorf uses the same hardware system as Space Zap, so diagnosing this game was a simple task. I was hoping for something simple like a power supply or monitor issue. Nope, its the PCB. Rats. A forum member once again to the rescue. Ed put alot of new components in the boardset and even patched up my power supply and joystick optic board for good measure. Now the game is working perfectly. I also recapped the monitor.
Aside from a minor artwork issue on the LH side above the bezel, it's in pretty good shape, just very dirty. This game had to be scrubbed down from top to bottom, inside and out, and my side turned white in the process. How the hell did that happen? I guess I'm using the wrong cleaner. Oh well, it still looks OK. A local forum member had just parted out a water logged and badly converted Gorf. He had the missing trim piece I needed and went out of his way to donate it. Nice. It's great to have local support in the community. But it doesnt end there. Chris was nice enough to send me a "Galactic Weapons System" joystick insert. It's a pretty rare piece that was only found in early versions of the game.
Now it's finally time for me to take on the Gorfian Empire.
The Score: This was that last "ellusive" game that I had to find, and after about a month of searching, I found this one on Craigslist in Saint Louis. It was priced at $150 and was advertised as "dead", but complete and in decent shape. The seller sent lots of photos and, aside from a missing piece of trim, it seems legit and looks nice. Only one problem, I was tied up in other projects at the time, and a trip to Saint Louis just wasn't happening anytime soon. Luckily I have a good friend who owns and operates a business in the South City area, and this game happened to be a few blocks away. I phoned in a favor and my friend graciously agreed to pick it up and store it until I could make the trip a few weeks later. Thanks Brian.
The Score: "The lights are on but nobody's home" is how you would hear an actioneer describe this game, meaning the game was getting power but showed no other signs of life. Gorf uses the same hardware system as Space Zap, so diagnosing this game was a simple task. I was hoping for something simple like a power supply or monitor issue. Nope, its the PCB. Rats. A forum member once again to the rescue. Ed put alot of new components in the boardset and even patched up my power supply and joystick optic board for good measure. Now the game is working perfectly. I also recapped the monitor.
Aside from a minor artwork issue on the LH side above the bezel, it's in pretty good shape, just very dirty. This game had to be scrubbed down from top to bottom, inside and out, and my side turned white in the process. How the hell did that happen? I guess I'm using the wrong cleaner. Oh well, it still looks OK. A local forum member had just parted out a water logged and badly converted Gorf. He had the missing trim piece I needed and went out of his way to donate it. Nice. It's great to have local support in the community. But it doesnt end there. Chris was nice enough to send me a "Galactic Weapons System" joystick insert. It's a pretty rare piece that was only found in early versions of the game.
Now it's finally time for me to take on the Gorfian Empire.
