Zaxxon

Cancelled ports

• Advertisements by U.S. Gold for upcoming Amstrad CPC conversions also included Zaxxon, but no such port was released.
• The German magazine Telematch mentioned a Ti-99/4A version in their Zaxxon review in issue 04/1983. According to their own accord in issue 07/1983, they saw a prototype, but it was cancelled because of license issues between Datasoft and Texas Instruments.

Commodore 64 licensing

Synapse's C64 license deal for Zaxxon was actually the result of a dodgy scheme set up by one of SEGA's own lawyers, Robert Crane. It involved setting up his own company called Universal Licensing, which managed to get the Zaxxon license, despite not being able to manufacture disks or pay licensing fees. One of his friends, Brian Depew, posed as Universal's general counsel, while Crane was using a pseudonym during the process of sublicensing the game to Synapse. He was actually writing to himself from Universal to SEGA. He also set up a deal later that granted Hesware the rights for Super Zaxxon. Eventually, the whole thing was discovered and a settlement agreement reached.

Sources: The case is described in Lawyers on Trial: Understanding Ethical Misconduct by Richard L. Abel. A shorter summary can also be found in the Entertainment Law Reporter, April 1991 issue.

Commodore 64 versions

There are two different, official ports of Zaxxon for the Commodore 64. Sega released the game on cartridge and Synapse Software released it on disk and cassette. Of the two, most people tend to agree that the Synapse version is superior. While the cartridge version's graphics are somewhat more faithful to the arcade original, the gameplay and sound aren't as polished as the Synapse version.

Development

John Garcia was actually in management at Datasoft when Zaxxon was written.

Telematch charts

In issue 06/1983 of the German magazine Telematch, the non-existing Ti-99/4A version of Zaxxon reached number one of the Readers' Choice charts. The responsible employee was fired. More information about the Ti-99/4A version under "cancelled ports".

Title

The curious moniker "Zaxxon" is derived, circuitously, from "isometric axonometric projection", its early 2.5D perspective which it is credited with being the first game to use.

UK C64 Release delay

The game's UK C64 release was delayed for several months when an unrelated business software developer called Synapse UK objected to US Gold importing the game under that name - hence the alternative 'Synsoft' branding being used in the UK

Awards

• TeleMatch
  • Issue 04/1984 – #2 Video Game of the Year 1983 (Readers' Vote)
• Zzap!
  • May 1985 (Issue 1) - #54 'It's the Zzap! 64 Top 64!'

Information also contributed by John Romero