![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/0.-COmmodore-PET-1024x606.jpg)
A giant monster emerged from the Ocean, some distance away from Hokkaidō!
Is it hostile ?
Yes, after our battleships shot at it, it definitely turned hostile.
Godzilla! is a weird little game by Randall Lockwood released in the April 1980 issue of CURSOR Magazine, one of those magazines that consisted of a cassette with a few programs inside, and a page folded around said cassette. CURSOR, launched somewhere in 1978, was specifically for the Commodore PET.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/April1980P1-715x1024.jpg)
In Godzilla!, later ported to the Commodore 64, I must project Japan from the famous Kaijū. More specifically, the acceptable losses are 20 million inhabitants. It’s nice to know you are dispensable!
To fight against Godzilla, I have all the resources the Japanese self-defence force and its allies can muster : ships, soldiers, planes, missiles and even atomic bombs. Let’s hope it does not come to that. The ships, men and planes are distributed on a grid, while the missiles are part of an off-map reserve.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/1.-Godzilla-1024x599.jpg)
As Godzilla is first detected in the middle of the sea, I start by engaging it with my battleships. It is wounded, but of course not enough, and my brave sailors sustain casualties.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2.-Godzilla-1024x587.jpg)
As Godzilla carries on its march on Japan, I attack it once more with my ships, and then, as it enters a cell with very few ships, by airplanes from Hokkaidō.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/3.-1024x589.jpg)
It manages to somehow destroy 30 or more of my planes, and carries on its march, reaching land. Time for my land troops to engage combat !
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/4.-1024x592.jpg)
18 000 dead soldiers, and some more damage to Godzilla, who has a lot of HP indeed.
If 18 000 dead soldiers was a tragedy, no one could describe what came next : Godzilla attacked Japan’s Northern island in a rampage, killing no fewer than 5 million civilians. I don’t know how it can be even possible for a monster to kill that many people, and I don’t know why I was not sacked immediately either.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/5.-1024x594.jpg)
There is no time to attack Godzilla when it is on a rampage, but happily enough it then decided to circumnavigate Hokkaidō, allowing me to attack it some more.
It then returned for some reason in the area it first emerged from. I had not a lot of ships left there, and it was out of range of my planes, so I used another tool from my arsenal : one of my 10 missiles.
Unlike air attacks, missiles cause collateral damage, but in the middle of the ocean, the “collateral” damage is a handful of sailors – acceptable.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/6.-1024x584.jpg)
Godzilla toured the area a lot more, though not causing a lot of damage. Several air attacks and missiles later, it eventually expired. Japan was saved!
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/7.-Godzilla-1024x588.jpg)
Godzilla! is an amusing distraction, but nothing more. A full session lasts between 5 and 10 minutes and is essentially a game of luck where decisions don’t matter.
- Godzilla roams randomly, instead of trying to actually attack Japan where it can actually kill a significant number of people. If it reaches Tokyo, you just got unlucky,
- When Godzilla attacks the population, the damage is totally random – maybe it will kill a couple hundred people in a large city, maybe it will kill everyone
- Similarly, the damage you cause it, and the losses you receive feel totally random,
- Finally, the game allows you to move troops or ships, but what’s the point – there is always something in your arsenal to attack it with : ships or troops, if not available planes, if not available missiles. In any case, moving troops or ships takes a full turn, Godzilla will have moved on by the time the player concentrates forces.
As you attack Godzilla every turn, it will eventually go down. The only time I lost a game during my tests was when I nuked Tokyo to see what happens.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PETNuke.png)
The two versions of the game are perfectly similar in terms of gameplay, the only difference is on the UI – the PET version requires the instructions that were around the cassette. You can play the PET version here and the C64 version there if you are curious.
![](https://zeitgame.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PETcontrol-1024x397.png)
Not much else to say about this game. Randall Lockwood worked on 5 other games for CURSOR, none of them within the scope of this blog. I found a Randall Lockwood who was the former president of The American Society For the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals – I like to think it is the same person but I don’t know.
3 Comments
Love these beyond obscure cassette games.
They have the advantage of being quick to cover between two long games.
I agree, this early homebrew stuff is short and sweet. Cursor had a pretty reasonable circulation in its time. Taking these early homebrew programs apart is how many people learned to code. It’s great to see them getting a proper play-through and write-up.