Codename MAT II is the sequel to Derek Bewster‘s acclaimed space combat game. It was published by Domark in the UK in 1985.
Tag Archives: aliens
Codename MAT, ZX Spectrum
Derek Brewster‘s Codename MAT (Mission: Alien Termination) is what I would call a ‘Star Trek’ game, with a liberal ‘borrowing’ of elements from Star Raiders. It was published in 1984 by Micromega.
Contra: Hard Corps, Megadrive/Genesis
Contra: Hard Corps is Konami‘s attempt to recreate the thrills and spills of the legendary SNES game, Contra III: The Alien Wars (aka Super Probotector), on the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, and – to be honest – it falls a little short of its SNES cousin.
Star Raiders, Atari 8-bit
Doug Neubauer‘s 1979 release, Star Raiders, is a very important game indeed. Predominantly because it was so hugely influential on many other games that followed it. Some people even point to it being the spark that started the first-person shooter market, but that is probably going a little too far…
Armalyte, Atari ST
Armalyte is a 1991 conversion of the classic Commodore 64 shooter by Cyberdyne Systems. Actually, it’s not really a conversion – more of a ‘re-imagining‘. More accurately: a ruining…
Gyruss, Arcade
Moon Patrol, Arcade
Moon Patrol is an early colour arcade shooter, released by Irem in 1982.
It was distinctive because you drove a vehicle, at the bottom of the screen, and had to jump over craters and obstacles, as well as shoot aliens in the sky. So you are keeping an eye on the road, while at the same time shooting enemies flying above you. This was a neat innovation at the time and earned Irem some respect.
Gorf, Arcade
Gorf is an early arcade shooter that feels like a poor relative to many of its peers of the time.
It borrows most of its features from other games (one wave is actually called “Galaxians” although I do believe that the developers properly licensed it from Namco) and doesn’t bring anything new to the table in terms of gameplay, but it did pioneer one thing. And that is: in the use of synthesised speech. Gorf was one of the earliest video games to use it (and although clear, it is quite robotic).
Moon Cresta, Arcade
Moon Cresta was released by Nichibutsu in 1980 and was extremely popular in arcades.
It is another colourful, fixed-screen shooter, this time with a scrolling starfield to give the impression of movement.
Galaxian, Arcade
Galaxian is an iconic video game from the golden age of gaming history.
In fact, Galaxian was Namco‘s response to Space Invaders. It came out in 1979 and enthralled gamers with its hypnotic but brutal gameplay. Which it still does, to this day.
The King of Grabs 