Looping

In Looping, a single player flies his/her airplane into Adventure-Land, battling hot air balloons, rockets, and other high-flying objects in the quest to reach “The End.” An acceleration button, fire button, and a 2-dimensional (up-down) joystick are all you have as you fly your plane over cities, through pipes, and eventually into “The End” itself. Death-defying looping maneuvers can be executed with ease as you attempt to destroy strange flying obstacles and ground targets.

The Looping arcade machine contains a series of relatively rare Texas Instruments CPUs and a dedicated DAC (Digital To Analog Converter) sound chip, capable of speaking audible commands to the player throughout his/her mission. The Texas Instruments CPUs are reportedly difficult to find if they need to be replaced, and original hardware is becoming scarce as the years go on.

Released in 1982, Looping was one of the two original titled produced by the German company Video Games GmbH. It is said to have been developed in Parma, Italy by Giorgio Ugozoli. It was licensed to Venture Line for US manufacture and distribution, and has seen home release on the Colecovision.

An interview with the devloper or Looping, Giorgio Ugozzoli, is available here in English, and here in original Italian!