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International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®


Shark Attack Shark Attack - Japanese Logo - Katakana / Kanji

Shark Attack - Cabinet - Video Game Marquee

Description

You control a great white shark who attacks scuba divers armed with spear guns. Devour all divers and avoid all spears. Levels are numbered and indicated by flashing skulls. Shark Attack was the first Video Game to have Quadrofonic sound.

This game was licensed and also manufactured by Game Plan.

It was also licensed to the company Game World by Pacific Novelty of L.A. in the U.S.A.

Shark Attack was produced by Pacific Novelty in 1981.

Pacific Novelty released 8 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1980. Pacific Novelty was based in United States.

Other machines made by Pacific Novelty during the time period Shark Attack was produced include: Deep Death, Thief, Mr. F. Lea, NATO Defense, Pop-A-Ball, and Pop-A-Ball II

Shark Attack - Cabinet - Machine
Cabinet
(Contributed by: freddy bailey)

Specs

Name Shark Attack
Developer Pacific Novelty (United States)
Year 1981
Type Videogame
KLOV/MOG # 9508
Class Wide Release
Genre Platform
Monitor
Conversion Class unique
# Simultaneous Players 1
# Maximum Players 2
Gameplay Alternating
Control Panel Layout Single Player
Controls
  • Joystick: 8-way
  • Buttons: 2 [ThrustMunch]
Sound Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles
  • Upright/Standard
Control Panel Shark Attack Control Panel Image

Shark Attack KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 2.98 (3 votes)

Fun Factor: 4.20

Overall Like 4.50
Fun (Social) 3.50
Fun (Solo) 4.50
Collector Desire 4.00

Technical Rating: 2.83

Gameplay 3.00
Graphics 3.50
Originality 3.50
Sound/Music 4.00

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.

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More pictures

Trivia

According to Bernie Stolar, who was president of the company at that time, Universal Pictures wanted a licensing fee for the game, stating that it infringed on Jaws. Universal took Nintendo to court claiming that Donkey Kong infringed on King Kong. Hoping to avoid a law suit, Stolar explained to Universal that Pacific was a very small company and could not afford a licensing fee. Universal agreed to allow him to make his first 1,000 machines without paying a fee. He supposedly made 999 machines and never made the 1,000th.

Cabinet Information

According to Bernie Stolar, who was president of the company at that time, Universal wanted a licensing fee for the game, stating that it infringed on Jaws. Universal took Nintendo to court claiming that Donkey Kong infringed on King Kong. Hoping to avoid a law suit, Stolar explained to Universal that Pacific was a very company and could not afford a licensing fee. Universal agreed to allow him to make his first 1,000 machines without paying a fee. He supposedly made 999 machines and never made the 1,000th.

Miscellaneous

A cassette player inside the machine (with a looping cassette tape of actual "screams") would play every time you ate a diver.

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Shark Attack Census

There are 14,717 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).

Uncommon - There are 7 known instances of this machine owned by Shark Attack collectors who are active members. Of these, 5 of them are original dedicated machines. 2 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There is one active VAPS member with an extra Shark Attack circuit board for sale.

Wanted - There are 2 active VAPS members currently looking for Shark Attack.

This game ranks a 1 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 3 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

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

Flyers

Technical

It was unique for its time in that it had high fidelity speech and sound effects. At the time of the games manufacture speech and sound effects were very primitive due to the limited memory capacity of computer technology. To generate the high quality audio, actors were hired to create a sound track for the game unique for the time and the audio track was played back via either a cassette player or 8-track player using a continuous loop cartridge. The game used 4 channels of audio where two were generated using General Instruments PSG sound generators and the two tracks from the tape player were switched in accordance to the action in the game.

Manuals

Foto-Finder® (Books)

  1. Arcade Treasures Kurtz (ISBN 088740619X) Page: 113; Color photo
  2. The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 112; Color photo Price guide: No
  3. Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 112; Color photo

eBay Listings

Click to search eBay for Shark Attack Videogame machines and related items.

Click to search eBay for Pacific Novelty for machines and parts.

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TOP WATCHED LISTINGS FOR: Shark Attack

Ebay Compatible Application

The Ocean Hunter Arcade Game FLYER Original UNUSED 1998 Video Art Shark Attack

Auction ends in: 12 hours, 16 minutes

FixedPrice
$18.70

Shark Attack Arcade PCB board set UNTESTED

Auction ends in: 1 month, 6 hours

FixedPrice
$449.00

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