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JETPAC
(Ultimate - 1983)
This is one of the most famous and fondly remembered games of the whole Spectrum era and it was the title that really made everyone sit up and notice Ultimate. With its smooth, arcade-style graphics it was an instant hit. You must guide your jet-packed spaceman about a number of levels, assembling your spacecraft and refuelling it, while shooting down the meteorites that pour across the screen. It's simple, yet challenging gameplay makes it highly addictive.
LIGHTFORCE
(FTL – 1986)
As programming skills rapidly improved through the early eighties, one of the first types of game to benefit was the shoot 'em up and this is one of the best looking scrolling shooters ever made on the Spectrum. Considering the programming talent behind it, it ought to be too. Roy Carter and Greg Follis were responsible for Gargoyle Game's graphical adventures Dun Darach and Tir Na Nog (Faster Than Light was in fact an offshoot of Gargoyle set up to release arcade titles). Despite their adventure roots they were more than capable of turning their hands to the world of shoot 'em ups, as they had already proved with Ad Astra a couple of years earlier.
COMMANDO
(Elite Systems – 1986)
One of the biggest hits in the arcades during 1985 was Commando and following the recent trend, Elite snapped up the license to convert it to the Spectrum. It was released at the height of the license-buying frenzy by Imagine and Elite, who were purchasing the rights to games by Konami and Capcom respectively. The actual gameplay differs very little from the standard shoot 'em up format. You are the soldier of the title and must rampage through enemy territory blasting anything that crosses your path. Unlike other shooters of the time, it uses a nearly-top-down perspective which works very effectively. It is rightly revered as a classic.
HIGHWAY ENCOUNTER
(Vortex - 1985)
This was the first shoot 'em up to use the isometric 3D graphics introduced by Ultimate. It was written by Costa Panayi who had already had success with Android, Android 2 and TLL. You control a droid which must progress up a road clearing it of vicious aliens who, as usual, are there to give you merry hell. If this wasn't tricky enough, you also have to play the game against the clock. Like all of Panayi's 3D efforts, it is beautiful to look at and a delight to play. Those technically minded ones of you might be interested to read this article which describes in details just how the 3D graphics were created.
URIDIUM
(Hewson - 1985)
First a major hit on the Commodore 64, Uridium was generally considered to be the ultimate scrolling shooter when it was released on the Spectrum. The plot is bog standard: fly a low-level mission over an enemy battlecruiser and shoot everything that moves. In fact, shoot it even if it doesn't move. What makes it so special are the crisp graphics and the surprising degrees of cunning and stealth required. Unlike other scrolling shoot 'em ups, you can also throw your little fighter into a 180 degree turn to finish off any nasties that slipped past you.
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Shoot 'em ups
It all started in the spring of 1962 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Steve Russell, a programmer, had spent his spare time designing a rudimentary game on one of the institute's two DEC PDP-1 mainframe computers. After a few months he had the cathode ray tube display showing a pair of small space ships that could be manoeuvred about the screen and fire at each other. The first shoot 'em up had been produced and its name was Spacewar. The rest of the programming team helped to add polish to the game with features such as a starfield, a large sun in the centre of the screen that exerted a gravitational pull on the ships, plus the primitive forerunners of today's joysticks.
Having briefly considered selling the code for Spacewar, Russell decided to give it away to anyone who was interested. It found its way into universities across America and was played extensively by a young man at the University of Utah named Nolan Bushnell. While working in an amusement park during the summer, Bushnell wondered if people would actually pay to play a cabinet-based version of Spacewar. At the time it wasn't viable because of the cost and limitations of technology, but by 1970 Intel had invented the microprocessor and it became a far more realistic prospect.
By now, Bushnell was working with an engineering company in California and in a better position financially to put his ideas into action. He and colleague set up a workshop and developed Computer Space, a game which owed a great deal to Spacewar. He approached pinball manufacturer Nutting Associates with the design and they agreed to take him and Computer Space on board. 1,500 units were built, but the game flopped miserably. For a public used to nothing more complex than flipping a metal ball about a colourful table, this was rocket science with its unusual controls and perplexing instructions. Bushnell bounced back though and went on to virtually invent the videogames industry. After falling out with Nutting Associates, he left to form his own company. He named it after a word used in the Japanese board game Go: Atari.
Everything changed in 1978. After a string of derivative bat and ball efforts, videogames seemed to be going nowhere. Then Japanese company Taito unveiled Space Invaders. Within months it had caused a shortage of the coin required to play it in Japan and made a similarly profound impact in the USA and Europe. It went on to gross over $500 million and revolutionise the games industry. The shoot 'em up had a new hero and it ensured that the genre ruled the arcade roost for many years to come. With Space Invaders came new concepts like the high score table and when Atari's 1979 hit Asteroids introduced the option of entering your initials alongside your score, players were able to compete for a place in a prestigious roll of honour. As the likes of Space Invaders used a never-ending format (ie there was no way of actually completing the game), the high score table gave real purpose beyond merely beating your personal top score.
By 1982, the world of arcade games, dominated by Atari, were at the back end of a truly golden age. Shoot 'em ups such as Scramble, Galaxian, Asteroids and the awesome Defender were very much the vogue. Newer ideas such as 3D were making an impact with titles like Battlezone and Tempest. But the advent of the home computer, coupled with a public tiring of generic formats, conspired to kill off the arcade and its offspring, the console.
Not that the ideas died, they just found themselves being converted for the Spectrum-owning public. With little concern for such matters as copyright, imitations of the most popular shoot 'em ups appeared everywhere. Melbourne House's Penetrator was an early conversion of Konami's classic Scramble, while Durell used the same game as the basis of their Falklands-inspired Harrier Attack. Versions of Phoenix, Galaxian and Moon Cresta were everywhere, but after a year or so of fairly uninspired copies, some original titles began to appear offering more than just wave after wave of aliens to blast, set on a single, featureless screen.
With what became the trademark of the Spectrum in the early years, fresh ideas turned the shoot 'em up into something that could never have existed in the arcades. Admittedly, some fine examples of the genre were still merely conversions of new arcade machines, but the titles that will be most fondly remembered are the likes of Jetpac and Highway Encounter which took popular ideas and gave them a unique twist. |
 Spectrum Originals |
Inevitably there were numerous attempts made to transport popular arcade shooters to the small screen and the best of this dubious bunch are listed later. But what about the true Spectrum originals? Obviously most of them owe an enormous debt to other games, but they were a crucial part of dragging a genre from its coin-swallowing roots into something far more evolved.
3 Deep Space (Postern - 1983)
This is not a good game, but it deserves a mention on the basis that it required 3D glasses, theoretically producing a genuine three dimensional effect. Having never played it myself, I cannot vouch for how effective this was, but I have my doubts. It is also remarkable for being an early title by Mike Singleton of Lords of Midnight fame.
Ad Astra (Gargoyle - 1984)
A scrolling shooter with a difference - the difference being that it uses large 3D graphics and your viewpoint is from behind and above your ship as it rockets through space, blasting aliens and dodging asteroids. The graphics are impressive, but sometimes look too large for the screen. Its gameplay isn't quite slick enough to sustain interest for long, but at the time it represented a novel approach to a tiring genre.
Airwolf (Richard Wilcox - 1984)
Made by the company who changed their name to Elite Systems Ltd and set out their stall by committing to spin-offs and conversions. This is a Scramble-esque battle through a series of hostile enemy zones which proves painfully hard to play. Addictive though. The lack of a congratulations screen miffed a few hardy gamers who reached the end.
Android 2 (Vortex - 1984)
Stop the advance of the Millitoids, survive the maze of death, rationalise the paradox zone, overcome the dangers of the flatlands and achieve all this before the departure deadline. Clear enough? Unsurprisingly, you are the android of the title, hunting down vile Millitoid creatures in a deadly maze. In each zone, you must destroy three of these beasts before moving onto the next level. There are other hazards in your way such as mines, hoverdroids and bouncers. It's all viewed in Ant Attack-style 3D. Tricky stuff.
Arcadia (Imagine - 1982)
The game that launched Imagine Software. They later made some extrordinary claims about how many copies they had sold, which were nonsense, but it was typical of the bluster that surrounded Imagine up until their untimely end in mid-1984. This is a traditional shoot 'em up, with your gunship at the base of the screen and aliens swarming on from right to left. The graphics were good for the time, but there's little to recommend it ahead of the other contemporary shooters listed here.
Battle of the Planets (Mikrogen - 1986)
I remember playing a demo version of this at the Mikrogen shop in Bracknell and feeling that I was almost part of the software industry! This is a decent tie-in with the classic cartoon series of the time that, in true Japanese tradition, featured around ten frames of animation per episode. I still loved it though and the game still holds a special place in my soppy, nostalgic heart.
Bedlam (MC Lothlorien - 1983)
A kind of maze-based shoot 'em up set on a deadly asylum planet. Curiously, as an inmate, you have been armed with a deadly laser cannon, but bless those misguided doctors because a marauding torrent of nutters are charging at you. They hurl themselves into the attack at breakneck speed too, so you'll have a tired trigger finger before too long. Hectic fun.
Blade Alley (PSS - 1984)
A pleasing shooter based in enemy trenches and over alien landscapes. You view your ship from behind with the baddies coming at you from over the horizon. You must adjust the height of your ship to that of the onrushing enemy in order to hit them. The 3D effects look primitive now, but they make the task of bringing down your foe that much trickier.
Cobra (Ocean - 1986)
In the mid to late Eighties, Ocean produced a glut of games tied in with expensive licenses and fitted to a tried and tested template of scrolling shooters. This tended to result in well promoted games with good graphics, but little in the way of originality. When the idea was still fairly young they produced Cobra which combined platform, arcade adventure and shoot 'em up elements very effectively. In many ways similar to their later titles, (Green Beret, Midnight Resistance, etc.) it proved to be a very playable, enjoyable hit.
Death Star Interceptor (System 3 - 1985)
With a name like that you know it can't be that original, but this attractive and involving shoot 'em up is certainly a damn sight more imaginative than many works of the time. Earth is under threat from a big ugly mechanical planet that is clanking its way inexorably through space. You start off by launching into space to meet an onrushing drove of fighters that need to be destroyed. From there it's into the Death Star's gun-filled trench to launch a torpedo down the exhaust vent and blow that evil metal moon into oblivion. Then it's onto the next Death Star for more of the same. This is a well-thought out and exquisitely presented title from the man (David Aubrey Jones) who went on to bring the brilliant Mercenary to the Spectrum.
Laser Zone (Salamander - 1984)
So many shoot 'em ups involve the same old format of a lone gunship and a battalion of diving aliens that it's refreshing to come across something a bit different. Don't get overly excited, this is still about shooting aliens, but there are enough new ideas here to make it worth a closer look. It comes from the fertile imagination of old Llama-head himself, Jeff Minter, one of the home computer scene's most notable early auteurs. The game is set on a grid and you control two gun turrets on the X and Y axis. Aliens attack from the left of the screen and you need to manoeuver both guns nimbly to intercept them. At later stages the attacks become more frenzied and are accompanied by laser bolts that flash suddenly onto the screen. A searingly fast and incredibly enjoyable game that shoot 'em up fans will adore.
Night Gunner (Digital Integration - 1984)
Amidst their output of authentic flight simulators, Digital Integration released this unconventional shoot 'em up. Although there are vague flight sim elements in it, it is essentially an arcade shooter that puts you aboard a World War II bomber. There are several action segments that you progress through: defending against enemy fighters, shooting down barrage balloons and dropping bombs, each involving different skills. A refreshing take on the genre.
Violent Universe (Fantasy - 1983)
This is a novel little game that manages to be achingly addictive. You control a ship that must expel lethal gas clouds into the path of pursuing aliens. It's against the clock too, with only 40 seconds to score 1000 points. As the levels progress the action becomes increasingly frenetic. Recommended.
| Defender Games |
In Defender you control a ship patrolling above a landscape populated by humanoids. Marauding aliens attempt to carry them to the top of the screen where they turn into dangerous mutants and attack you. If you manage to pick off one of the aliens as it is towing an unfortunate humanoid into space, you need to swoop by and pluck the poor fella out of the air before he plummets to his death. The speed, energy and deafening sound effects of the original were always going to be hard to reproduce on the Spectrum, but there were some fair attempts.
Defendar (Mikrogen - 1983)
Not a bad effort, with all the expected elements and some useful graphics, but I found it a bit of a slow coach compared to some of the other titles.
Invasion of the Body Snatchas (Crystal - 1983)
In true early Spectrum tradition, the title has been changed subtley enough from the film of the same name to avoid any court action (and assumed some kind of urban gangsta chic into the bargain). This is a rapid and demanding Defender, but the graphics leave a little to be desired and curiously, unless you owned a Fuller box, there was no sound!
Orbiter (Silversoft - 1982)
Although it was squeezed into just 16k and was a very early Defender clone, this is surprisingly good, offering some lively graphics and original sound effects. There's plenty of aliens to blast and humanoids to protect and it remains as faithful as any of these games to the original.
Starblitz (Silversoft - 1984)
The Speccy's 8 colours, attribute clash and humble sound chip meant that only so much could be done to convert some of the best arcade games. Starblitz is as close a replica of Defender as you'll find on the Spectrum. The graphics are large, smooth and speedy, right down the wonderful explosions. This is fast and furious action, every bit as demanding as the original.
| Galaxian/Phoenix Games |
The descending wail as a formation of aliens swooped down on my gunship is a vivid gaming memory of mine. If you never spent your youth hunched over fag-burnt arcade machines like Galaxian allow me to enlighten you. You control a spacecraft at the bottom of the screen and above you lurks an array of aliens who swoop down in a variety of cunning formations. Your aim is quite simply to shoot everything and stay alive. If the Spectrum's efforts at recreating the sights, sounds and tension of the originals weren't quite arcade-authentic, they never disgraced themselves as this choice selection demonstrates.
Firebirds (Softek - 1983)
It's a Phoenix game and not a bad one. Like the original, there are waves of attacking space birds to blast away, before you take on the might of the mothership. Good graphics and decent sound effects make this well worth a play.
Galaxians (Artic - 1982)
A cracking conversion. The graphics are neat and colourful and the aliens attack in convincing fashion, showering you with laser bolts. There's a few colour clash problems and the sound effects aren't great, but don't let that put you off this great shoot 'em up.
Hawks (Lotus Soft - 1983)
A Phoenix-style game where you control a heavily armed Moon buggy and must fight off an array of evil space birds. These birds launch eggs towards the surface which will hatch unless you deal with them promptly. Your buggy is armed with missiles, lasers and mines to combat your feathery foe. Far more involving that most shoot 'em ups.
Pheenix (Megadodo - 1984)
Now there's a name for a software company. This is one of the most accurate arcade conversions made for the Spectrum. You control a lone gunship and must combat a swooping formation of birds who swirl about the screen bombarding you with laser bolts. There are 5 different attack waves culminating in a battle against the mothership which must have its force field worn away before it can be destroyed.
| Scramble Games |
Konami's 1980 classic is still one of my favourite games of all time. You control a ship that must pass over an enemy landscape and through heavily defended caverns, destroying as much as you can with your laser cannon and bombs. Missiles and rockets are launched into your path and enemy craft join the attack. The Spectrum threw up numerous interpretations of Scramble, the best of which I've listed below.
Cavern Fighter (Bug Byte - 1984)
This is a great Scramble clone, capturing the addictiveness and frustration to perfection. The graphics are large and bright and the sound is surprisingly good. Although it was a relative latecomer to the Scramble conversion party, Cavern Fighter proved to be one of the most smartly dressed.
Harrier Attack (Durell - 1983)
Hot on the tail of Britain's success in 1982's Falkland's War came this Argie-bashing cash-in. Not that it specifically referred to the South Atlantic conflict, but it was fairly clear at the time that it was capitalising on the delerious patriotism that swept the country around this time. Despite the unpromising premise of a tie-in with a war, Harrier Attack was a very good Scramble clone. Starting your mission on board an aircraft carrier out to sea, you must guide your jumpjet over the nearby island, destroying ground targets and avoiding a barrage of missiles, rockets and enemy aircraft. An excellent early example of this type of game.
Penetrator (Melbourne House - 1982)
One of the earliest and best Spectrum conversions. The gameplay is almost identical, with the usual caverns to fly through, missiles to avoid and an arsenal of rockets and bombs to be fired. Considering its age it remained popular for many years after its release.
Scramble (Mikrogen - 1983)
A faithful version with all the usual features. The graphics are good and it accurately follows the layout of the original, but I found it a little too difficult for my tastes.
| Space Invaders Games |
Yes, the old Taito staple produced a crop of Spectrum efforts. Space Invaders was already a dusty old relic in the arcades by the time these games were launched, but this didn't deter many software houses or home programmers trying their hands at a decent conversion. I suspect that this was as much because it seemed like a fairly simple game to convert than anything else. I cannot believe there is a man, woman or child reading this who doesn't know the Space Invaders format, so I won't waste time explaining it to you.
Galactic Trooper (Romik - 1983)
The best of the bunch in my opinion. There three levels of difficulty and a few more targets to shoot at. There seems to be much more happening that in the other titles, but like all Invader games, there's only so much for you to do.
Space Intruders (Quicksilva - 1982)
Yes, it's the first commercial Spectrum game of them all. It's nothing to get excited about with its tiddly graphics and modest sound effects, but it warrants a mention if only for the fact that it's an important part of Spectrum history.
Space Raiders (Softek - 1982)
It might be better looking that Quicksilva's effort and have additional features, but this game is ruined somewhat by being painfully slow. Try it on an emulator with the speed cranked up.
Spectral Invaders (Bug Byte - 1982)
An old game from possibly the oldest Spectrum software house of them all. Blow the dust off it and you'll find a modest Invaders adaptation written by Dave Lawson, later to become co-founder of a company called Imagine Software. Despite its limitations it was a comparative hit at the time mainly thanks to a series of full-page ads in the computer press.
| Other Conversions |
By the time of the mid-Eighties, those games with dodgy spellings of well-known arcade games had been replaced by fully licensed conversions. New or old, they all attempted to squeeze the multi-coloured effects of a dedicated games machine into the puny confines of the Spectrum. This was always going to result in some fair compromises in terms of graphics and sound, but cruciallly, the gameplay often remained intact. Here's my pick of the best.
Cosmic Debris (Artic - 1982)
This is a take on the old Asteroids format. You know the score: your little ship, a puny cannon, a hyperspace button and a whole heap of asteroids waiting to be blasted into oblivion. This is the best Spectrum version that I've come across. It uses the same simple but effective graphics as the original and it's devilishly fast.
Green Beret (Ocean - 1986)
I think that this was the first game that I bought to use one of those poxy double cassette boxes, when there was actually only one tape inside. Try fitting one of those into your WH Smith tape storage case! Anyway, this is standard Ocean scrolling shooter fare, albeit very well done. Think of Cobra with knobs on. The game scrolls beautifully and there are endless baddies to blow away with an array of different weapons. I found that I progressed about five paces in my first dozen plays, so don't be disheartened too early.
Missile Defence (Anirog - 1983)
Without the cultured movement afforded by a trackball, Missile Command games have never been the same when brought into the home. However, if you rig a joystick up to this version you'll find that it's the best Spectrum rendition by far. Be warned though, if you decide to use the keyboard, there are no less than seven keys to master which makes a fast moving game like this almost unplayable.
Mooncresta (Incentive - 1984)
A trip to the Space War! Up until this release, most of Incentive's games had been adventures and strategies, but their officially licensed version of this arcade classic was one of the most polished conversions of the era. Unlike other games of the ilk, your lives are represented by the three stages of your spacecraft. Plenty of neat aliens whirl about the screen for you to blast and even the sound effects are refreshingly good for this type of shooter.
Robotics (Ocean - 1984)
This is based on the arcade favourite Beserk and places you in a series of connecting rooms with electrified walls, each full of deadly robots that must be destroyed. It's a simple but compelling notion and this is a nifty version with clear graphics and the sort of gameplay that made the arcade version such a classic.
Star Firebirds (Insight - 1985)
A fairly standard version of Nintendo's Space Firebird, but one that involved the remarkable talents of Mike and Tim Follin. The former brother was a brilliant games programmer who worked on greats like The Sentinel, Bionic Commando and later on the Playstation version of Quake II. Tim was a musician who wrote the most memorable tunes for the Spectrum and is still involved with the business. The third brother, Geoff, worked with Tim on many C64 projects. Back to the game though. It's perfectly playable, if unspectacular, and notable for Tim Follin's first effort at Spectrum music - a rendition of the opening to Stravinsky's Firebird Suite.
Terra Cresta (Ocean - 1986)
The vogue from the mid-Eighties onwards was to dispense with colours in favour of smooth, clash-free, if slightly bland, monochrome graphics. This may have been one of the reasons that many later games came to look so similar. This is not to say that it meant a bad game was the end product as this cracking conversion proves. Written by Ocean's best programmer of the time, Joffa Smith, it is a fine top-down shooter with some great power-ups. Even if half the screen is taken up by the scoreboard.
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Copyright R.Tayler |
