Thread:Stormlilly/@comment-3417255-20131108092627

Given how the original was what's refereed to as the "slow bullet" version, it's safe to assume that it was released before the revised "fast bullet" version. The revision may have came about with the change of some hardware, namely a change of joysticks due to defects with the optical units. These were later replaced with a leaf-switch design, and offered as free replacements to currently circulating units, shortly after arcade owners began to cancel their orders just from having to deal with similar joysticks, and word of mouth.

The game itself wasn't exactly cheap back in the day. Production of each unit was rather costly, just in the synthesized voices. Each word cost around a thousand bucks, so just on the 30 word English "version" would be about $30,000. These weren't recordings ether, each arcade cabinet was actually generating each phrase when called for by the game's programming. While some of the phrases were single lines such as "coin detected in pocket" or "chicken, fight like a robot" (yes, the game does say that), some of the lines featured 2 interchangeable parts. This was done so enemy robots would say things like "attack", "destroy", "shoot", or "kill" followed by "it", "the humanoid", "the intruder", or "the chicken".

The game also had some so-called controversy, namely in the competitions for the highest score for the game. The "box pattern" was generally a tactic which used the game's map generator and enemy programming against itself in order to boost the player's score. This tactic was used during a record run at E for All in 2008, when Phil Younger hit 401,130 points on the "slow bullet" version of the game. This beat the previous long standing record of 178,500 by Ron Bailey, made back in 1982.

Overall, when it comes to Berzerk, there's quite a bit of history. The game was ported to a number of home consoles, Milton Bradley turned it into a board game, and it even served as the basis for a number of other games such as Robotron 2084, Castle Wolfenstine, and Xybots. The original cabinets could even be converted to the game's lesser known sequel "Frenzy" just by swapping out one of the processors and installing a different ROM set. While the game may not be as popular as it was back in the day, the effects it had on the industry are still present.

Did I ever mention that I'm well versed in Berzerk lore? 