Berzerk appreciation post. I remember encountering this game at University of Hartford's student center in 1981. This Stern Electronics 1980 maze arcade game stood out with its (crude but virtually unprecedented) voice synthesis, taunting players to "fight like a robot" and occasionally saying "coin detected in pocket" on the attract screen as you watched it.
One quirk of this game that always initially confuses me to this day when I play it is how you cannot shoot unless the joystick is out of the neutral position (moving), and how once you start shooting (fire button down) you stop moving.
Thus you cannot move and shoot, and the mechanic takes some getting used to. I have often wondered if this was less of a design choice and more of a limitation of game design experience by Stern Designer Alan McNeil, who left his previous company to work at Stern because he was turned down as a video game design lead due to lack of experience.
Whatever the case, it's very distinct and turned out to have an interesting exploit. If you keep holding the fire button down and move the joystick, you can stay in one spot, but fire in all directions at will.
A notable fan of the game was Eugene Jarvis, legendary game designer for Williams Electronics. He was inspired by the joystick-based firing approach and it influenced his design of Robotron:2084, an early twin stick shooter with similar design aesthetics.
