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Phoenix is an video game developed for arcades in Japan and released in 1980 by Taito. The game is a Fixed-screen shooter where the player controls a space ship, and must shoot at incoming enemies that fly from the top of the screen down towards the enemies.

Following the games release in Europe and Japanese arcades in 1980, the game was distributed in the United States by Centuri, where it helped make the company turn a profit, where their previous year was a loss. Atari contracted the rights to develop a home port of Phoenix for the Atari 2600 and sued Imagic for their game which they felt was too similar to Phoenix.

Phoenix! received positive reviews from video game publications such as Electronic Games, Electronic Fun with Computers and Games, and The Video Game Update. Phoenix was one of the first shooter games to feature a boss battle, a gameplay element that would become normal for the shooter genre following the release of the game.

Gameplay
Phoenix is a shooter game set on a fixed screen set in space. The player manevers left and right to avoid objects such as missiles and charging enemies. A force field can be used by the player to protect them from these attacks. The forcefield only lasts a few seconds, then can not be used for approximately five seconds after.

There are five stages in the game. The first begins with a wave of 16 small phoenixes that drop missiles to attack the players spaceship. A second wave includes further birds. The third wave introduces a new enemy that appears in a group of eight. These enemies start as eggs than grow into blue Phoenix birds that attack the ship. They need to be destroyed by being hit in the center, otherwise they will only destroy the birds wing which can regenerate itself in a short time. A fourth stage appears which features pink phoenix enemies, which appear and can be destroyed similarly to the previous round. The fifth stage features a space fortress with a pack of small birds that attack the spaceship. The space fortress shoots missiles and approaches the player. After the space creature who pilots the ship is hit, the round is complete.

Operational switches are available on the arcade machine that can adjust gameplay. These allow the number of initial lives in the game to range between three to six, while other switches control what score is required to earn an extra life.

Development
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, several game companies made outer-space themed shooter games, which involved players destroying alien space fleets. These games generally shared the traits of enemies slowing approaching towards the player from the top of the screen and and attacking the player. Phoenix was one of the games following this trend.

Phoenix was initially developed in Japan. The rights to the game for distribution were owned by several companies, including Amstar Electronics who were based in Phoenix, Arizona. Centuri Inc entered into a licensing agreement with Amstar Electronics to release it the United States, Canada, and Central and South America. Centuri had previously been Allied Leisure Industries, with Adam Miller becoming the companies president in 1980. Prior to working at Centuri, Miller had worked for Taito where he had arranged a deal with to license Space Invaders to Bally Manufacturing.

In 1982, Atari received a four-year contract to distribute and market all current and future Centuri arcade games outside of the arcade systems, with the first three games announced being ports of the games Vanguard, Challenger and Phoenix. The Atari port of the game was made by John Mraceck and Michael Feinstein. Mracek was a junior at MIT at the time and made the game as part of his internship. It was developed in mid-1982. The Atari 2600 version misses elements from the Arcade original, such as the ability to save high scores, the music (the arcade version features two pieces of music. When the game starts, "Romance de Amor" is played and "Für Elise" is played when a player completes a level.), the star field background, numerals representing points when a bird is hit, the smaller birds appearing around the mothership, and fewer enemies appear on the screen at once in the home version. Mraceck stated that they had to cut over one-third of their original code to fit the game on the cart. The two were limited to 8KB rom cartridge for the game.

Release
Phoenix was released in Japan on December 1980 where it was licensed to Taito by TPN. The arcade version of the game was distributed in the United States by Centuri in January 1981.

Phoenix was released for the Atari 2600 in February 1982. Atari had the exclusive rights to produce Phoenix for home consoles and filed suit against the company Imagic, believing that their popular game Demon Attack was too derivative of Phoenix. A settlement was reached in January 1983, with Imagic still being allowed to release Demon Attack for the Atari 2600. Phoenix was released for consoles in the compilation game Taito Legends for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and Windows PCs.

Reception
Prior to its release in the United States, the game was released in Europe and Japanese markets where it was very popular. At the end of 1981, Centuri reported revenues of $61.4 million with a profit of 7.5 million. In comparison, the company's previous year gross was $5.9 million with a loss of $4.5 million. Phoenix was the best selling of Centuri's titles by 1982. The Atari 2600 version sold over 600,000 units.

The Video Game Update referred to the Atari 2600 adaptation as a "very good translation of the arcade classic." In Electronic Games, Bill Kunkel and Arnie Katz wrote that the game favorable was the other recent Atari 2600 releases such as Vanguard, Yars' Revenge, and Demons to Diamonds noting the quality in graphics and control, stating it "is perhaps the finest invasion title ever produced for the 2600!" Noel Steere of Electronic Fun with Computers and Games praised the game, stating it was a "perfect arcade adaptation" with beautiful sound, which made up for "for the sin of Pac-Man". The game received a Certificate of Merit in the category of "1984 Best Science Fiction / Fantasy Videogame" at the 5th annual Arkie Awards.

In a retrospective review by Brett Alan Weiss (AllGame) the game was awarded a five out of five rating, referring to it as a "one of the most impressive games the "slide-and-shoot" genre has to offer, bested only by Galaga in terms of sheer enjoyment and replayability" and concluded that "Finely balanced shooting action combined with colorfully animated graphics make Phoenix a true classic among shooters." In 1995, Flux magazine ranked the arcade version of Phoenix at #69 on their list of "Top 100 Video Games", stating it was one of the better Space Invaders variations.

Legacy
Phoenix was one of the first shooter games to have a boss battle. Bosses would come to typify the shooter genre following the release of the game. Games that would borrow elements from Phoenix include Space Vultures, Gorf (1981), Condor Attack (1983). Ken Horowitz in his book Beyond Donkey Kong stated that Nintendo's arcade game Space Firebird was "undoubtedly more than a bit inspired by Phoenix."

A sequel to Phoenix titled Pleiades was released in arcades in 1981. A version of this sequel was made for the Atari 2600 in 1983, but was not released until 2003 by Atari Age.