Developed by Jamie Fenton of Dave Nutting Associates, Gorf <\/em>was Midway\u2019s biggest arcade hit since Gun Fight.<\/em> A classic shooter that drew inspiration from other titles such as Space Invaders<\/em>, Galaxian <\/em>and Phoenix<\/em>. GORF <\/em>is an acronym for Galactic Orbiting Robot Force<\/em>.<\/p>\n Released in February 1981, the game stood out with the addition of some interesting features like letting players buy extra lives per quarter for up to seven lives. It also became famous for its synthesized speech, a unique firing system called the \u201cquark laser\u201d which allows the player to cancel the previous shot if it misses, along with rankings that the player could achieve like Space Cadet<\/em> and Space Avenger<\/em>. Controls were provided by a unique (at the time) pistol grip controller with a trigger fire button built in (as per Tron<\/em>) \u2013 designed by none other than George Gomez.<\/p>\n It was a package that landed well with distributors, arcade owners and the players themselves, resulting in a production run estimated at 25,000 cabinets.<\/p>\n Fenton went on record describing watching players smiling and continuously putting quarters into Gorf<\/em> as \u201cbetter than any drug I\u2019ve ever taken\u201d.<\/p>\n Gorf <\/em>was a stone cold classic. Fenton\u2019s follow up game later that year, was Robby Roto <\/em>which sadly didn\u2019t share similar success, and had a very short production run of less than 2,000 cabinets. <\/p>\n Midway\u2019s next move was to develop a follow up to Gorf<\/em>, tentatively titled Ms Gorf<\/em>\u2026.<\/p>\n Sadly, fate would can the project\u2026. As Jamie explains:<\/p>\n We worked on [Ms Gorf] for maybe a year, and I kept a video log of my progress. Eventually Midway decided to change to a new generation of hardware that wasn\u2019t recordable, and all the progress stopped being captured, which is unfortunate because the game was cancelled. I drew a tombstone on the floppy disks with RIP and the date the game ended, and they\u2019re now at the Computer History Museum [in Mountainview, California]. I still have the GORF source code disks.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So with the game cancelled, Jamie decided to keep the development disks and associated gear related to the game. She eventually donated that collection to a computer museum in California so it would be preserved.<\/p>\n Some time later, enthusiasts, with Jamie\u2019s permission, imaged some of the 5\u00bc\u2033 floppies. Three of those images formed the nucleus of an idea to recreate the game \u2014 old school disks copied onto a computer so the bits wouldn\u2019t rot. At first, the files looked like garbage. It appeared that every programmed bit was flipped \u2014 like reading a photo as its negative. Flip them back, and you can read words and pictures.<\/p>\n But then a madcap idea. What if Ms Gorf<\/em> could be resurrected from the dead? Of course, it had to be done. Could this game be rebuilt, as true as possible to Fenton\u2019s original vision, so that Ms Gorf<\/em> could be played in 2026?<\/p>\n I spoke to UK enthusiast, MikeDX, who worked on the project about how they went about recreating the game:<\/p>\n In 1982, Jamie Fenton (the designer) was filmed playing a prototype of Ms Gorf, which is now on YouTube. We watched the film, frame by frame, and chopped out the gameplay. Almost every creature on the TV matched the sprites from our disks. Nice!<\/p>\n The video also showed things the disks didn\u2019t fully have: the score numbers, how fast you shoot, two sticks (one to move, one to aim), how the big \u201cclone\u201d alien blows up when you clear a round.<\/p>\n Jamie even said out loud stuff like \u201cabout ten shots a second\u201d and \u201ctwo joysticks.\u201d That became our homework list. So, the gameplay is basically everything we know from video and narrative provided by Jamie.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n As Mike explained above, we do have some insight into this moment in time, as Jamie Fenton was interviewed on camera about the state of the videogame market. Shot in 1982 by a group of film makers for a show that never aired called Wired In<\/em>, it is a fascinating insight into the mind of Jamie Fenton, just coming off of the disappointing performance of Robby Roto.<\/p>\n The whole video is worth a watch (especially Jamie\u2019s visions for the future of videogames), but the key section for our purposes starts at 5:45 \u2013 Jamie actually plays a very early demo of the intended follow up to Gorf \u2013 Ms Gorf<\/em>. Take a look:<\/p>\n \n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/arcadeblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/GorfImage-1024x461.avif\")
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