Moon Patrol

Moon Patrol is a unique side scrolling shooter game in which you piloted a moon buggy that had to cross the rocky and pitted terrain of the moon while avoiding attacks from over head alien crafts.

Moon Patrol was developed in Japan by Irem, but it really took off in America thanks to the distribution by Williams. Atari saw the game as a hot title to bring home and bought the rights to release it for home systems. They released it on several of their own platforms, and developed the title for other platforms through the Atarisoft label. It has since been included on several classic Midway collections.

Story
Take the role of a Luna City police officer assigned to Sector Nine, the home of the "toughest thugs in the galaxy."

Gameplay summary

 * You control a moon buggy. It rolls along the moonscape on its own; you can direct it to go faster or slower by holding the joystick left or right.
 * You can fire forward and upward at the same time by pressing the Fire button; the fast upward shot takes out alien spacecraft overhead, while the slow forward shot destroys rocks and various ground-based enemies.
 * You can also jump by pressing the Jump button, which allows you to clear pits and mines, and even jump over said rocks and ground enemies.
 * If you're hit by enemy projectiles, you run into a rock or ground enemy, or you fall into a pit, you will lose a life; you start with three.
 * There are two "courses", marked by twenty-six checkpoints (A to Z) of which five are major, essentially dividing the courses into five "stages". When one of these major checkpoints is reached, your time is compared to the par and bonus points may be given; completing a course gives you an additional 5000 points.
 * The second Champion Course is harder and introduces new enemies over the first Beginner Course, and "loops" forever (each loop is even numbered).