Cabal
Ah yes, Cabal. This war themed arcade game throws you and a friend right into the thick of battle. Your mission is to maim, kill and blow up everything in sight on twenty (20) different screens (four screens per stage, with a total of five stages). Should you reach the end and defeat the evil dictator, you are free to relinquish your guerrilla fighting days and just become a run of the mill commando.
Ask any arcade gamer about Cabal, and you will notice a wry smile come over their face. Cabal had you ducking behind walls to escape enemy fire all the while you shoot back and destroy everything on screen, from buildings, tanks, helicopters, submarines, walls and trees to animals! Using your onscreen cross-hair, you aim and fire. Your soldier starts with his trusty single-shot gun (with unlimited ammo), however, there are power-ups (shotguns, machine guns, grenades) hidden on each screen, hence the importance of shooting and destroying everything in sight. Once the screen has been leveled out, your soldier moves on to the next screen or stage.
Cabal set the blueprint for a number of shooting games, from its own successor, Blood Bros. to SNK’s NAM-1975. These games may be better (for some gamers), but you have to pay homage to where the inspiration came from – Cabal: Dare the Danger!
| Graphics | Nice large sprites. Items on screen blow up with great satisfaction (buildings collapse in dust when their foundations give in to your incessant fire) |
88% |
| Sound | Expected frenetic war machine noise |
85% |
| Playability | The screen does not scroll, but the gameplay is hectic. You will love blowing up everything on screen |
85% |
| Lastability | Still great to come back to and shoot everything in sight, including the pigs! |
83% |
| Overall | Using the trackball may get some getting used to, but once you do, Cabal will dare you to play it. Get ready to destroy everything |
82%
|
Manufacturer: TAD Corporation
Year: 1988
Genre: Shooter
Number of Simultaneous Players: 2
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Joint
Control Panel Layout: Multi-Player
Controls:
– Trackball: Optical
– Buttons: 2 (shoot and grenade)
Sound: Amplified Mono (single channel)
Visits: 320
This was a fantastic game, one that ate pounds and pounds of quarters from my part-time job.
There wasn’t much like it in the arcade at that time: Operation Wolf was about the closest one I can think of, and it was single-player, more realistic, first-person, and didn’t feature buildings you could blow up. It was a lot more hard-core and a lot less fun.
I wonder if it’s even possible to locate an original Cabal cabinet now. All I know is that when I build a MAME machine, it will have at least one trackball, mainly for this game.
Yes!!! I spent a lot of money back in the day in this game. Operation Wolf was great too, probably it was a lot harder. I remember it had kid bombers? =P