Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®


Dambusters Dambusters - Japanese Logo - Katakana / Kanji

MARQUEE PICTURE NEEDED FOR Dambusters - Click for details on how to contribute.

Description

The player must fly a bomber from England to Germany and back to destroy a Dam in the Rhur valley. The bomber flies over a horizontally scrolling landscape whilst shooting enemy planes and ground targets. The dam must be destroyed by a well-timed strike with a bouncing bomb.

Dambusters was produced by GAT in 1981.

GAT released only 1 machine in our database under this trade name.

Other machines made by GAT during the time period Dambusters was produced include:

Dambusters - Cabinet - Machine
Cabinet

Specs

Name Dambusters
Developer GAT
Year 1981
Type Videogame
KLOV/MOG # 7488
Class Wide Release
Genre Shooter
Monitor
Conversion Class unique
# Simultaneous Players 1
# Maximum Players 2
Gameplay Alternating
Control Panel Layout Single Player
Controls
  • Joystick: 8-way
  • Buttons: 3 [Fire Front|Fire Back|Bomb]
Sound Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles
  • Upright/Standard
PCB Dambusters PCB Image

Game Play

Each mission involves flying the bomber over the English Channel, over Germany, dropping the bouncing bomb on the Dam, flying back over Germany and the English Channel, and finally landing safely in England. As you approach the target, the enemy planes attack more frequently and accurately. As well as the threat of being shot down, the player could also run out of fuel during the mission, ending the game. The game scrolls from left to right on the way to the target, and from right to left on the return leg. The button to release the bomb is as a thumb-trigger on the joystick. To accurately hit the target, the player has to fly at a particular height, achieved by matching the positions of two targeting points, and release the bomb at a set distance from the wall of the dam. This proves very difficult.

Dambusters KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 2.15 (1 vote)

Fun Factor: 1.80

Overall Like 1.00
Fun (Social) 2.00
Fun (Solo) 1.00
Collector Desire 4.00

Technical Rating: 2.50

Gameplay 2.00
Graphics 3.00
Originality 3.00
Sound/Music 2.00

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Log in to rate this game!

Trivia

Dambusters was one of very few games to be written by a UK company.

Conversion

The game is a conversion for Galaxian hardware, using a daughter board and lots of wire.

Miscellaneous

LICENSOR: South West Research (Bristol, UK)

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Dambusters Census

There are 14,716 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,455 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 164,291 machines (6,886 unique titles).

Rare - There are 2 known instances of this machine owned by Dambusters collectors who are active members. Of these, It is an original dedicated machine (not another machine converted with a kit). One is a set of circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

Wanted - No active members have added this machine to their wish list.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Technical

There is a test switch and a high-score name clear switch. One of the DIP switches is used to "filter" swear words from the high score table. Another removes the Union Jack from the attract mode.

Fixes

The game uses battery backed RAM and, much to no one's surprise, the battery tends to leak. There does not appear to be a means to reset the RAM and it contains some game play information. Hence, if the RAM becomes corrupt, the game may become unplayable.

Manuals

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Dambusters Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for GAT for machines and parts.

When you click on links below to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Such revenue helps to fund this site's operations. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Dambusters

Ebay Compatible Application

DAMBUSTERS by GAT dedicated version RARE

Auction ends in: 4 days, 12 hours

FixedPrice
$649.00

Contribute

  1. Log in to contribute content to this page
  2. Please consider donating to the International Arcade Museum Library