game
icon
title Phoenix (Amstar)
set name phoenix
manufacturer Amstar
year 1980
genre Shooter (hof)
category Shooter / Gallery (hof)
driver status good
driver source phoenix.c
snapshots PS: in game | title | gameover | bosses / MW: in game / CT: in game | title / Mr. Do: artwork / EJ: in game / artwork: cabinet | marquee | PCB
zoom
rating

68.1% after 215 votes
 
clones Batman Part 2
Condor (bootleg of Phoenix)
Falcon (bootleg of Phoenix) (8085A CPU)
Falcon (bootleg of Phoenix) (Z80 CPU)
Fenix (bootleg of Phoenix)
Griffon (bootleg of Phoenix)
Next Fase (bootleg of Phoenix)
Phoenix (Centuri, set 1)
Phoenix (Centuri, set 2)
Phoenix (Irecsa / G.G.I Corp)
Phoenix (T.P.N.)
Phoenix (Taito Japan)
Phoenix (Taito)
Phoenix Part 2
Vautour (bootleg of Phoenix) (8085A CPU)
Vautour (bootleg of Phoenix) (Z80 CPU)
display
colour emulation good
palette 256
display type raster
orientation vertical
resolution 208x256
frequency 61.035156Hz
sound
sound emulation good
channels mono
controls
players 2
nplayers 2P alt
controls 2 way joystick
buttons 2
coin slots 1
hardware
cpu 8085A @ 5.5MHz
audio TMS36XX @ 0.000372MHz
audio Phoenix Custom
audio Discrete @ 0.12MHz
data
version added .022
last change(s) .110u5
roms
name size crc set flags sha1
ic45  2048  9f68086b  phoenix    fc3cef299bf03bf0586c4047c6b96ca666846220 
ic46  2048  273a4a82  phoenix    6f3019a074e73ff50ceb92f655fcf15659f34919 
ic47  2048  3d4284b9  phoenix    6e69f8f0d537fe89140cd95d2398531d7e93d102 
ic48  2048  cb5d9915  phoenix    49bcf55a5721cfcc02c3b811a4b601e35ea576db 
h5-ic49.5a  2048  a105e4e7  phoenix    b35142a91b6b7fdf7535202671793393c9f4685f 
h6-ic50.6a  2048  ac5e9ec1  phoenix    0402e5241d99759d804291998efd43f37ce99917 
h7-ic51.7a  2048  2eab35b4  phoenix    849bf8273317cc869bdd67e50c68399ee8ece81d 
h8-ic52.8a  2048  aff8e9c5  phoenix    e4164f85ec12d4d9bcbffba27ab1f51b3599f6d0 
ic23.3d  2048  3c7e623f  phoenix    e7ff5fc371664af44785c079e92eeb2d8530187b 
ic24.4d  2048  59916d3b  phoenix    71aec70a8e096ed1f0c2297b3ae7dca1b8ecc38d 
b1-ic39.3b  2048  53413e8f  phoenix    d772358505b973b10da840d204afb210c0c746ec 
b2-ic40.4b  2048  0be2ba91  phoenix    af9243ee23377b632b9b7d0b84d341d06bf22480 
mmi6301.ic40  256  79350b25  phoenix    57411be4c1d89677f7919ae295446da90612c8a8 
mmi6301.ic41  256  e176b768  phoenix    e2184dd495ed579f10b6da0b78379e02d7a6229f 
additional information
info 0.07 [Brad Oliver, Mirko Buffoni]

Artwork available

Bugs:
  • "Phoenix" side-by-side test. Gary Walton (ID 01026)
  • [possible] During the demo, after the first game over, the last line low of the screen does not come cleaned up. zaxxon1 (ID 01192)
  • falcon, fenix: Initialisation "garbage" differs between 32bit and 64bit Firewave (ID 03329)
  • phoenix, phoenixa, phoenixb, phoenixc, phoenix3, phoenixt: Ship's firing shot sound is incorrect. inkeye (ID 03339)
WIP:
  • 0.138u1: Changed description of clones 'Phoenix (Taito Japan Ver.)' to 'Phoenix (Taito Japan)' and 'Phoenix (IRECSA, G.G.I Corp)' to 'Phoenix (Irecsa / G.G.I Corp)'.
  • 18th May 2010: Smitdogg - We dumped a Model racing bootleg of Phoenix/Griffon.
  • 18th March 2010: ANY Dumping Union dumped Griffon (alt bootleg of Phoenix). griffon.03 is the only different rom from the supported set, don't know what the difference are. griffon.k11 is the real prom used on griffon PCB. maybe the data is the same as the 2 proms.
  • 18th March 2010: Smitdogg - We got an alt. version of Griffon.
  • 22nd February 2010: Mr. Do - Gregf pointed out an auction for a Taito Phoenix bezel, which looked a lot like Rock Climber. After checking through The Arcade Flyer Archive, it seems there quite a few Taito Japan games that used this type of bezel, just with different colors. So, based on the TAFA flyers, there are new bezels for Phoenix.
  • 0.134u4: Changed 'Phoenix Part 2' from a parent set to a clone of Phoenix. Changed region gfx2 to gfx1 and gfx1 roms addresses in 'Phoenix Part 2'.
  • 0.134u3: Andy Welburn and Dumping Union added Phoenix Part 2 (bootleg 1981).
  • 6th October 2009: Smitdogg - Another dump from our friend Andrew Welburn. BrianT hooked it up. It has some issues on my pc which may or may not be specific to my computer but either way as you can see, some nice progress has been made. This is a bootleg running on Galaxian style hardware.
  • 0.129u4: Team Japump added clone Phoenix (Taito Japan Ver.). Changed Custom sound to Phoenix Custom.
  • 0.128u2: More Discrete module optimizations [Derrick Renaud]. This module optimizations speed up Phoenix 13%.
  • 0.124u2: Changed description of clones 'Falcon (bootleg of Phoenix) (set 1)' to 'Falcon (bootleg of Phoenix) (8085A CPU)', 'Falcon (bootleg of Phoenix) (set 2)' to 'Falcon (bootleg of Phoenix) (Z80 CPU)', 'Vautour (bootleg of Phoenix) (set 1)' to 'Vautour (bootleg of Phoenix) (8085A CPU)' and 'Vautour (bootleg of Phoenix) (set 2)' to 'Vautour (bootleg of Phoenix) (Z80 CPU)'. Renamed (falcona) to (falconz). Renamed (vautour2) to (vautourz).
  • 0.122u7: Changed 8085A CPU1 clock speed to 5.5MHz.
  • 0.122u6: Phoenix and clones [Couriersud]: Video timing from schematics, palette from schematics (resnet.h), no more colortable and added save state. Changed visible area to 208x256 and VSync to 61.035156 Hz.
  • 0.121u2: David Haywood added clone Next Fase (bootleg of Phoenix).
  • 14th November 2007: Paturlas dumped Next Fase (bootleg of Phoenix). It's a clone of Phoenix, developed in Spain. It looks like they changed title screen and DIPs. A more accurate code analysis is needed to tell apart differences.
  • 18th February 2007: Mr. Do - Added cocktail layout for Phoenix, thanks to the BYOAC group purchase.
  • 0.110u5: Brian Troha added clone Phoenix (Centuri), Set 1. Renamed (phoenixa) to (phoenixb). Fixed rom names.
  • 2nd December 2006: f205v dumped Phoenix (Centuri), Set 1. This is an Original Amstar PCB, where EPROMs 1,2,3,4 have been replaced from original with Centuri licensed ones. The main important thing is that there is a different version/revision of the sound chip and the background music as game start is different!
  • 0.110u2: Added clone Fenix (bootleg 1980). This is an italian bootleg based on Vautour.
  • 0.104: Derrick Renaud changed R22 to 470 ohm per real board of the Phoenix discrete sounds. This should fix the remaining complaints with the discrete sound. The shot & explosion noise sounds still need discrete emulation.
  • 0.103u5: Derrick Renaud tweaked Phoenix effect #2 sound to be more accurate matching oscilliscope data. Changed the Phoenix discrete clock rate to a fixed rate of 120000 allowing the simulation to be more accurate with less alaising noise at the cost of speed.
  • 0.103u2: Hans Andersson fixed discrete sound effect #2 in Phoenix.
  • 0.99u1: Added clone Vautour (set 2) (bootleg 1980).
  • 0.97u5: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added coin 2 and fixed some dipswitches in the Phoenix clones: Phoenix (T.P.N.), Condor, Griffon and Falcon (bootleg set 2).
  • 0.97u1: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added clone Falcon (bootleg set 2).
  • 10th June 2005: Alessio dumped Falcon (bootleg of Phoenix) (Z80 CPU).
  • 22nd May 2005: f205v dumped Fenix (1980).
  • 0.95u3: Derrick Renaud updated tone sounds in Phoenix to use discrete system. Added Discrete sound.
  • 0.80u2: Pierpaolo Prazzoli added clone Griffon (Videotron 1980).
  • 0.69: Smitdogg added clone Falcon (bootleg).
  • 0.68: Chris Hardy added clone Vautour (Jeutel France).
  • 12th May 2003: Chris Hardy added Vautour to the Phoenix driver.
  • 0.61: Added clone Condor (Sidam 1981).
  • 24th May 2002: Stephane Humbert fixed dipswitch settings in Condor.
  • 23rd May 2002: Zsolt Vasvari added Condor to the Phoenix driver, which is basically a version of Phoenix running on Z80 instead of I8085, and it has a time limit.
  • 30th March 2002: Smitdogg Jones re-submitted the Phoenix driver with Falcon added to it.
  • 7th October 2001: William Kucharski fixed the Phoenix cocktail mode bug.
  • 0.37b16: Added clone Batman Part 2 (bootleg).
  • 0.37b15: Replaced 8080 CPU with 8085A (2.75 MHz).
  • 9th April 2001: Zsolt Vasvari fixed the dipswitch settings in Phoenix and Pleiads.
  • 0.37b14: Added 'Cabinet' dipswitch.
  • 17th September 2000: Zsolt Vasvari fixed a problem in Phoenix hiscore loading.
  • 20th March 2000: Juergen Buchmueller fixed some SN76477 and Phoenix sound bugs.
  • 0.36RC2: Added TMS36XX sound.
  • 12th March 2000: Juergen Buchmueller sent in a sound core for TMS36xx sound chips emulation and modified Phoenix, Pleiads, Naughty Boy, Pop Flamer and Monster Bash to use it. Phoenix samples are no longer used.
  • 9th March 2000: Juergen Buchmueller sent a preliminary Phoenix analog sound driver.
  • 0.36b11: Mike Haaland added clone Phoenix (Centuri).
  • 29th November 1999: Mike Haaland added another Phoenix romset.
  • 0.36b7: Added Custom sound.
  • 0.35b11: Richard Davies fixed tune in Phoenix.
  • 0.35b6: Replaced I8085 CPU with I8080.
  • 0.35b1: Zsolt Vasvari fixed two players games in Phoenix.
  • 0.34b5: David Winter added clone Phoenix (IRECSA, G.G.I Corp).
  • 0.30: Brad Oliver support music in Phoenix, via samples.
  • 0.29: Nicola Salmoria fixed the background, it was clipped too low in Phoenix. Accurate colors in Phoenix.
  • 0.27: Renamed (phoenix) to (phoenixt) and (phoenixa) to (phoenix). InputPorts now can automatically handle VBlank bits. No more need to write custom code. Phoenix use this feature.
  • 0.26a: Mirko Buffoni worked with the wrong source, now everything is back to normality in Phoenix.
  • 0.26: Andrew Scott provided a better sound support for Phoenix. Melody is still missing, because Shaun's board doesn't have it.
  • 0.23: Added clone Phoenix (T.P.N.) and HiSore support.
  • 0.22: Added clone Phoenix (Amstar).
  • 0.21.5: Fixed a bug in sound init of Phoenix that caused the game to crash under DOS.
  • 0.20: Brad Oliver fixed Phoenix sound init routine.
  • 0.19: Shaun Stephenson provided original Phoenix sound samples, so Mirko Buffoni adjusted sound driver to achieve correct sound modulation and frequency, and substituted noise generator for shots and explosions with a couple of samples. Noise generator can be still used (just don't put the samples in the directory) with Phoenix and it's used in Pleiads. Mirko Buffoni changed white noise waveshape and adjusted frequency, so now it sounds better.
  • 0.14: Richard Davies updated the audio routines in Phoenix, sound is now closer to the original and noise is emulated.
  • 0.13: Richard Davies provided a new Phoenix/Pleiads driver with partial sound support.
  • 0.091: Even this time Nicola managed to screw up one game (Phoenix). It works again.
  • 0.07: Brad Oliver and Mirko Buffoni added Phoenix (Centuri 1981).
  • 26th April 1993: Dumped Phoenix (Amstar).
LEVELS: 5

Other Emulators:
  • FB Alpha
  • JAE
  • Retrocade
  • VAntAGE
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Romset: 25 kb / 14 files / 15.6 zip
history Phoenix (c) 1980 Amstar.


Phoenix is a classic shoot-em-up in the mould of 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 player's ship moves along the botton of the playfield firing upwards. The ship can also utilize a temporary 'Force Field' to protect it from missiles and birds. Any Phoenix that collide with the Force Field are destroyed. The Force Field only lasts for two seconds and then cannot be used again for another five seconds.


There are five attack waves to each round of play.


The first wave begins with a formation of sixteen Phoenix attacking the player's ship. They drop missiles and dive at the ship in an effort to destroy it.


The second wave is a variation of the first, only with a different enemy attack pattern.


The third wave begins with pattern of eight eggs that when shot hatch into blue Phoenix birds that then attack the player's ship. These birds can be destroyed by rocket fire from the ship. If the rocket hits the bird on center, the bird is destroyed. If the rocket hits the bird to the left or right of center, only that wing of the bird is destroyed. The wing will regenerate itself if the bird is not quickly destroyed.


The fourth wave is similar to the third, only with two banks of eggs instead of one.


The fifth and final wave is the attack of the Space fortress mothership; a huge mothership piloted by a purple-coloured alien that sends down waves of small birds to attack the player's ship, as well as launching missiles from the fortress itself. The alien is protected by a barrier that must be shot several times before both the alien and mothership are destroyed.


Once the mothership has been destroyed, the game starts over with an increased level of difficulty.


- TECHNICAL -


Most Phoenix games will be in a standard Centuri woodgrain cabinet, but several other cabinets exist, due to this game being sold by multiple companies at the same time. These use sticker sideart (which covers the upper half of the machine), and glass marquees. The control panel is made up entirely of buttons, no joysticks are present. The monitor in this machine is mounted vertically, and the monitor bezel is relatively unadorned. Phoenix uses a unique wiring harness, which isn't know to be compatible with any other games.


Main CPU : 8085A

Sound Chips : TMS36XX, Discrete circuitry


Screen orientation : Vertical

Video resolution : 208 x 248 pixels

Screen refresh : 60.00 Hz

Palette colors : 256


Players : 2

Buttons : 4 (LEFT, RIGHT, FIRE, SHIELD)


- TRIVIA -


Titlescreen's copyright notice :

PHOENIX COPYRIGHT 1980

AMSTAR ELECTRONICS CORP.

PHOENIX AZ. U.S.A.


Released in December 1980.


Phoenix was the first multi-level space shooter and also the first shooter to include bosses. Despite its hardware issues, Phoenix's many gameplay innovations ensured that it now is rightly regarded as a classic and, along with Taito's "Space Invaders" and Namco's "Pac-Man" shares the dubious honour of being one of the most cloned games of the 1980s; with numerous console and home computer 'tributes' appearing.


Mark Gotfraind holds the official record for this game with 987,620 points.


Official releases :

Phoenix (Amstar Electronics Corp.)

Phoenix [Maxi model] (Centuri, Inc.)

Phoenix [Upright model] (Centuri, Inc.)

Phoenix [Japanese Cocktail Table] (Taito Corp.)


Bootlegs/hacks :

Phoenix (Irecsa G.G.I Corp.)

Phoenix (T.P.N.)

Griffon (Videotron)

Falcon (BGV)

Vautour (Jeutel)

Condor (Sidam)

Batman Part 2


- SCORING -


Scoring is a little complicated in this game due to the fact it depends on hits made and how close the Phoenix's are to your fighter.


Phoenix fighters : 20, 40, or 80 points; 200 points if flying as a bird.

Phoenix birds : 50 or 100 points/egg, 100 - 800 points/bird (depends on how many wings shot off and distance from fighter).

Spacefortress : 800 - 9200 points (depends on the amount of damage to the spaceship, speedof destruction, as well as the number of spaceships destroyed). Usually, first 9 spaceships would increase by a thousand, then will be followed by nine 9000 point spaceships, then back to the first nine set, etc...


- TIPS AND TRICKS -


* When you start the game, your fighter will be in the middle at the bottom of the screen. You will see a formation of enemy fighters at the top of the screen. This is the beginning of wave 1. A quick note about the shield. It lasts a couple of seconds and takes about five seconds to regenerate again.


WAVES 1 AND 2 :

1) You will usually be attacked by multiple fighters at any one time. The movements of these fighters is pretty random.

2) In addition to dropping bombs on your fighter, Phoenix fighters also tend to try to ram your fighter.

3) After you clear out a few fighters, they will reassemble at the top of the screen. They will then move in synch with each other as they creep to the bottom of the screen.

4) Sometimes a Phoenix fighter will hover right above your ship. If you're quick, you can get off a quick shot and move away before a bomb can be dropped on you.

5) If multiple Phoenix fighters are at your level, use the shield to clear a path through them.


WAVE 3 AND 4 :

1) The Phoenixes in wave 3 enter the screen in a zig-zag pattern while the Phoenixes in wave 4 arrive in a cross-over pattern of four Phoenixes per side.

2) Once they get large, they start to do erratic zig-zag patterns across the screen. At the same time, they are dropping bombs toward your fighter. Your goal is to shoot off their wings. If you do this, it forces them to go straight down until the wing regenerates. They will still be dropping bombs, but at least they will be going straight down.

3) If at all possible, try to hit the Phoenixes when they are close to your ship. Doing this gets you more points.

4) In addition, try to shoot off both wings before destroying a Phoenix for more points.


WAVE 5 :

1) Your goal on this wave is to cut through the hull and shield and take out the alien inside.

2) Start firing as rapidly as you can to quickly cut through the hull. It will take quite a few shots to get to the shield.

3) The shield rotates so you will have to hit it a lot of times in order to get a wide enough hole in it to hit the alien.

4) As all of this is going on, the Spacefortress is continually descending upon your ship. In addition, the escorts are constantly harassing you.

5) A good strategy is that once you have cut a path through the hull and shield, wait for the Spacefortress to be almost on top of your ship. When you take out the alien, you will get a lot more points.

6) Destroying the escorts does not end this wave. Once you complete wave 5, the cycle begins anew.


* During the game three birds will attack all in a line. Let those birds fly all the way to the bottom and start to fly back up. As they are flying up, shoot all three in a row real quick (2 or 3 seconds) and you score will elevates your score to 204,000 regardless of what your current score is - The best way to get this bonus for shooting the three birds in a line is on the second stage of level 2. The blue and pink birds in an oval shape. Just wait, not firing at the bottom of the screen. A single bird will come down, fanny around and then fly back up, then 4 birds will fly down together in a line. When they start to fly back up - blast three of them for the bonus. It works best here because of the rapid fire allowed on this and every other 2nd stage. In addition, accomplishing the trick a second time again puts your score at 204,000, even if your score was higher.


- SERIES -
  1. Phoenix (1980)
  2. Pleiads (1981)
resource links view in MAWS
view in mini MAWS
view in CAESAR
view high score and replay at MARP
view in Progetto EMMA (Italian)
view game bugs at MAME Testers
view driver bugs at MAME Testers
view in arcade-history.com
view in Games Database
view in KLOV
view in MamEnd
view in System16
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in The Arcade Flyer Archive
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
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