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Omega Race: My 15th Favourite Video Game


Game: Omega Race
Released: November 1981
Publisher: Midway
Platform: Arcade, Atari 2600, Commodore VIC-20, 64
Type: Arcade Space Shooter
Graphics: Meh
Game Play: Narly Dude
Originality: Meh
How many hours I’ve wasted: Blank Eyed Soulless Stare
The Nostalgia Factor: Meh

“In the year 2003, the Omega System developed a method of training its warriors to protect their star colonies against Android forces over the city of Komar. Omega fighters raced to engage and destroy these aliens and the mines they planted. The Omega method is so successful, it command fear and respect from all throughout the galaxies. This method is code named OMEGA RACE.”

 From the Introduction on the game package. 2003 seemed so far away in 1981. 

 Omega Race was the second video game I ever played.

The first was Space Invaders, also for the Commodore VIC-20 system (called Avenger on the Commodore)… but I originally played it on my uncle’s Texas Instruments TI-99/4 system (which is incidentally the first computer I’d ever seen).

I remember being very impressed that it used a joystick. Of course, we expected a lot less of our video games in 1981.

Like most early arcade games of the era, Omega Race had no ending; every new level simply added more enemies that became faster and faster. It was one of the most (and probably remains so) challenging games I've ever played. It took a great deal of effort to control and master your spaceship... which was graphically represented by the letter ‘A’(Ooooooh! Hey - that was a big deal back then) whilst bouncing off force fields and avoiding enemy craft which occasionally fired at you or laid mines.

My brother and I would play Omega Race for hours trying to beat each other’s score until our VIC-20 became too hot to touch.

The only real drawback to the game that I remember (other than almost melting the computer), was that the cartridge system for the Commodore required a lot of strength to remove and insert cartridges (and my little girls arms weren’t up to it... still almost aren't), so we had to call our Dad to switch out the games.

Once and a while, I still get the urge to play. I'll dust off the old VIC-20, shovel in some coal, and with great difficulty, insert the cartridge. Even after 32 years, Omega Race is a lot of fun to play.

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