Juno First
Juno First is a shoot 'em up originally developed and published by Konami Corporation for Arcades. The game was later published by Mylstar Electronics (US arcades), Datasoft Inc. (Atari 8-bit, PC Booter, and Commodore 64), and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (MSX). Juno First is a top down, vertical scrolling shooter in which there is a limited amount of time to defeat the enemies in each wave. The players spaceship starts out with a laser that has a longer reach than the enemy weapons. The enemies start out firing a few bullets at the ship but the amount enemy fire rapidly increases as players progress through to the next waves. Certain enemies fire tracking missile-like projectiles that can shoot additional bullets.
SCREENSHOTS
PHYSICAL
HISTORY
Juno First is a 1983 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Konami for arcades. It was released in Japan in July 1983 and in North America by Mylstar Electronics in September 1983. The game is a shooter with a slightly tilted perspective, similar to Nintendo's 1980 game Radar Scope. The game was ported to the MSX, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit computers, and IBM PC.
Gameplay
Juno First presents a set number of enemies per level, but they do not make a gallery formation like Galaga or Space Invaders. Instead, the player's ship can move forward and backward (in addition to left and right) to hunt enemies in an orientation that is vertical, but has some horizon-oriented tilt. This style of gameplay would be re-used in a later Konami shooter, Axelay.
The player destroys waves of enemies to finish levels. Starting formations vary from stage to stage. In addition, the player can pick up a humanoid, upon which the screen will have a red tint. While this happens, every enemy the player shoots will earn the player 200 more points than the previous enemy destroyed. The original score for shooting an enemy while in humanoid mode depends on the stage.
Ports
Juno First was first ported in the western market to the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit computers, and IBM PC in 1984. All of these ports were handled by Datasoft. The Commodore and Atari ports were programmed by Greg Hiscott, while the IBM version was programmed by Scott Titus.
In Japan, Sony released a conversion of Juno First in 1983 for MSX computers. This version soon made its way to other MSX markets as well.
Juno First was included via Microsoft's Game Room service for the Xbox 360 and Windows on June 30, 2010. Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 on March 13, 2025.
GAMEPLAY VIDEO
SCORES
RELEASES 7 systems
PHYSICAL RELEASES 1 box
