Rising again from the ashes for the first time in 10 years, look at what we’ve had incubating for all of you space shooter fans…
Phoenix is an outer space “slide & shoot” similar to Taito’s Space Invaders and Namco’s Galaxian, but takes the concept further with the introduction of progressive stages of play instead of simply repeating a single playfield over and over with an increasing difficulty level.
The original developer of Phoenix is unknown. According to Centuri’s Joel Hochberg, the game was licensed from “a smaller Japanese developer.” Amstar Electronics (which was located in Phoenix, Arizona) licensed the game to Centuri for manufacture in the United States in 1980.
The Phoenix mothership is one of the first video arcade game bosses to be presented as a separate challenge, before the term “boss” was coined. Phoenix holds the dubious honor of being one of the most bootlegged and cloned games of all time. The Apple ][ clone was called Falcons, and was one of the most faithful ports of an arcade game to the platform.
We’re proud to present you with a beautifully maintained original Phoenix cabinet for your enjoyment. Play it now before it returns to its incubation chamber once again!