Radar Scope
Radar Scope is an early cabinet arcade game developed and published by Nintendo in December 1979. Some sources claim that Ikegami Tsushinki also did design work on Radar Scope. It is a shooter that can be viewed as a cross between Taito's
Space Invaders and Namco's
Galaxian. It was released in three types of arcade cabinets: upright, cockpit, and cocktail. Contrary to popular belief, it was not Nintendo's first arcade video game. Prior Nintendo games include
EVR Race,
Computer Othello,
Sheriff,
Space Fever, and
Space Firebird.
Radar Scope was the first game that Shigeru Miyamoto helped develop. The game's key innovation was its three-dimensional third-person perspective, which was imitated years later by shooters such as Konami's
Juno First and Activision's
Beamrider. Although
Radar Scope was only a modest success in North America, it was more successful in Japan, where it was second only to
Pac-Man in popularity for some time. Miyamoto's more popular
Donkey Kong was based on
Radar Scope's hardware, and used surplus
Radar Scope cabinets.