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.
Tag Archives: stars
Gyruss, Arcade
Galaga, Arcade
Namco‘s Galaga – the sequel to Galaxian – came out in 1981 and was an immediate hit with gamers.
Gone were the days of Space Invaders and rigid attack patterns – the baddies in Galaga danced around the screen; made circles, and flew around in distinct and fluid attack patterns. It was new and it was revolutionary!
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.
Academy, ZX Spectrum
Sub-titled “Tau Ceti II“, Pete Cooke’s stunning Academy is a brilliant mission-based surface shooter that combines great presentation and atmosphere, with interesting use of light – quite radical for a humble ZX Spectrum.
Mad Planets, Arcade
Developer Gottlieb released Mad Planets into video game arcades in 1982.
Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis, Atari ST
Damocles: Mercenary II, Atari ST
Developer Paul Woakes takes the Mercenary series much further in Damocles (1990) – the second game in the series.
Morpheus, Commodore 64
Andrew Braybrook‘s 1987 release, Morpheus, is a strange mix of space shooter and resource management. Management of your ship’s shield’s mostly, which can be prolonged by adding extra generators, or by building up the size of the hull.
The King of Grabs 