King and Balloon

King and Balloon is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1980. It was the first game to feature synthesized voices, but didn't do very well in the arcades as it was unfortunately released at the same time as Namco's own Pac-Man. The King speaks when he is captured ("Help!"), when he is rescued ("Thank you!"), and when he is carried away ("Bye bye!") The balloons also make the same "droning" sound as the aliens in Galaxian, which runs on similar hardware.

The player must take control of a cannon whose job is to patrol the battlements of a castle, protecting its king and keeping squadrons of descending balloon-marauders at bay. Unlike many other fixed shooters, the cannon can be hit and destroyed any number of times - it is the king who must be protected. The game is over when the King is carried away three times (or four, depending on if the player had earned an extra life).