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…
Tag Archives: cockpit
X-Wing, PC
Still considered to be one of the best Star Wars games of all time, X-Wing is a serious, high-tech, fantasy combat sim – in space obviously – with all the different ships from the famous films in there somewhere, modelled in low-res 3D.
Sky Fox, Commodore 64
Ray Tobey‘s exciting first-person air combat game, Sky Fox, was first released on the Apple II in 1984, then converted to other systems by Electronic Arts in 1985.
Mercenary: The Second City, Commodore 64
Not a sequel, but a ‘data disk’ add-on that you load through the original Mercenary. The Second City starts off pretty much the same as Mercenary – crashing on a planet (this time the other side of the one you explored in Mercenary, and also a different colour) and having to explore to get on and eventually escape.
Mercenary: The Second City, Atari ST
A 16-bit conversion of Paul Woakes‘ classic 8-bit exploration sequel to Mercenary. Well, not really a sequel – more a continuation… The real sequel came later.
The Atari ST‘s power (relative to the Commodore 64) means smoother, faster 3D graphics; more colours (useful, when colours are used to identify rooms and places underground); and more sensitive controls.
Mercenary, Atari ST
A fine 16-bit conversion of the classic Mercenary by Paul Woakes, written by Woakes himself it seems. And why wouldn’t it be? It’s a great game and deserves doing right, so who better to code it than the original creator?
Federation of Free Traders, Atari ST
A space exploration and trading game from 1989 that was meant to rival Elite. And it almost did. Except for a fundamental problem… The problem was: travelling around; jumping from planet to planet was… To put it mildly: sticky.
Starglider 2, Atari ST
Starglider 2 was met with pretty much universal acclaim when it was first released in 1988. And – as a 3D shooter – it broke new ground in a number of different areas.
Frontier: Elite II, Atari ST
While all the other space exploration and combat games on 16-bit home computers flail around in their own mucky diapers, Frontier: Elite II makes a mockery of everything else in its class by not only being a staggering piece of programming, but also a damn fine, playable game too.
Driller, Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 version of Incentive‘s classic Driller is surprisingly good, considering that the machine isn’t particularly suited to this kind of game.
The King of Grabs 