Smash T.V. (rev 8.00)

Smash T.V. (rev 8.00) is the 1990 Williams arcade twin-stick shooter, a coin-op take on a vicious televised contest supposedly broadcast from the far-off year 1999. Designed by Eugene Jarvis and programmed by Mark Turmell, it turns the single-screen survival format associated with Jarvis’s Robotron: 2084 into a gaudy game-show spectacle. One or two contestants enter a succession of sealed arenas, where every escape route is earned by surviving the next attack.

The dedicated arcade controls give Smash T.V. its identity. Each player has two eight-way joysticks: the left stick moves the contestant and the right fires independently in any direction. That separation makes running, circling enemies, and shooting sideways or backward possible at the same time. It is an immediate control scheme, but the constantly filling rooms demand quick reactions and careful positioning; standing in the middle of an arena is rarely safe for long.

Each room is a self-contained fight. Enemies stream in through openings around the screen, and players clear the wave before moving on through one of the available exits. The chosen route leads to more rooms, so a level can branch before converging on its boss encounter. A map shown after the opening room helps establish the layout, but completed rooms cannot be revisited. Fixed hazards such as gun emplacements add another target to the crowded screen, while larger foes anchor the climactic battles at the ends of stages.

Combat is punctuated by pickups. Money, wrapped prizes, keys, and short-lived combat upgrades appear amid the chaos, inviting players to decide whether a dangerous dash is worth the reward. Weapon, speed, and defensive boosts can change the immediate rhythm of a fight, but they do not remove the pressure to keep moving. In two-player play, the contestants cooperate against the same waves while also competing for the cash and prizes they collect; the higher haul at a level’s end earns an extra reward.

The show’s premise is delivered through its exaggerated presentation. A grinning host periodically interrupts the action with announcements about carnage, money, and prizes, reinforcing the parody of violent televised entertainment. The arcade release uses Williams Y Unit hardware and appeared in a two-player cabinet built around its dual-stick layout. Its dense waves, bright effects, and one-screen concentration distinguish it from a scrolling shooter: progress comes from mastering a small battlefield before choosing the next door.

Revision 8.00 is one of the later arcade versions of Smash T.V. and includes the game’s Pleasure Dome route. Keys gathered through the stages matter because collecting enough of them opens access to that secret bonus destination late in the game. This revision detail is part of the arcade game rather than a separate sequel or home conversion; the title still represents the original Williams coin-op released in 1990.

Smash T.V. later reached numerous home systems, though several conversions were titled Super Smash TV. Those versions had to adapt the arcade cabinet’s independent movement-and-firing controls to pads and buttons, making the original machine’s two-stick panel especially central to the arcade experience. Williams followed its frantic style with the 1992 arcade game Total Carnage, another Mark Turmell project that shares the twin-stick approach, but Smash T.V. remains its own game-show arena challenge.