A rather underwhelming shooting gallery; even the game’s name seems to have been conceived with the minimum of effort. Line your crosshairs up and blast away at enemies (in the form of TIE fighters, again) and asteroids. Be careful not to hit any friendly ships. It looks fine enough in screenshots, but in practice it chugs about and the sound effects are very average. You’ll see if you can get on to the high score table and then load up 3D Starfighter, which is much better.
Space Gun
(Ocean, 1992)
It’s the year 2039 AD, and your spaceship receives a distress call from a crippled starbase which is being overrun by aliens. You have to explore the corridors of the starbase, rescue as many hostages as you can, and blast lots and lots of slimy, monstrous aliens. The game is viewed in pseudo-3D, with you looking down the corridors, and the effect is fairly impressive. Unfortunately, the pace of the game is sluggish, which spoils the atmosphere of what should really be an action-packed game. Interestingly, this is one of very few non-cartridge games to exploit the Plus’ extra colours and other facilities, and for some reason, it was only released in France. However, the slow pace and the unresponsive controls make this a frustrating game to play.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Xyphoe.
Three-dimensional shoot-’em-up conversion of the popular Sega arcade game. Fly across the surface of different planets across the galaxy at breakneck speed, destroying the waves of enemies that come at you. Face and destroy the guardian aliens such as double-headed dragons at the end of every stage, in order to progress to the next with only your trusty laser gun to aid you. While the music and sound effects are nice, the gameplay is ruined by the somewhat hit and miss graphics. The backgrounds and your own character are more than adequate but the ‘transparent’ enemies and planet obstacles make it too difficult to pinpoint them, something that the sequel amends with solid sprites.
See also: Space Harrier II.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
ChinnyVision,
Xyphoe,
ZEUSDAZ.
An evil force has taken control of the Fantasy Land and imposed a cruel tyranny upon it. Yet again, shoot your way past the scores of enemies that come at you and carefully weave your way through opposing surface structures. Blast the end of level monsters in order to face the next round and battle your way through to the ultimate level to meet and destroy the Dark Harrier. In spite of the fact that this lacks any originality – it’s exactly the same as its predecessor – it’s a superior game as the improved graphics beef up the gameplay considerably.
See also: Space Harrier.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
ChinnyVision,
Xyphoe,
ZEUSDAZ.
Space Hawks is a Galaxian clone, pure and simple, but not a bad one at that. Upon loading, your ears are met with a decent rendition of a well known sci-fi movie. A starfield scrolls in the background as you choose one or two players. You then begin your attack upon the Space Hawks. Each stage displays different baddies, including a pink ball that bounces around the screen on later levels – hitting it causes it to split into four! Overall, it’s a good blaster, and in many ways, it’s far superior to many later attempts.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
GameHammer Classic Gaming,
Xyphoe.
40Crisis has made another Z80 miracle and here we are with one more direct emulation of another legendary game – the famous Space Invaders. There isn’t much to say about this game, as you all know it. It is a 100% faithful emulation of the coin-op, like a MAME game. It is a strange feeling when playing an exact coin-op game on your CPC screen! I strongly believe that all of you out there should load it and spend some time playing it. The old arcade game feeling is unsurpassed and never ageing!
Space Moves was the winner of the 2015 #CPCRetroDev Game Creation Contest. It is, as its name implies, inspired by the legendary Army Moves and Navy Moves, both of which were released by Dinamic. Those games were really tough to beat and this one hasn’t forgotten its roots; it is also a real pain to beat. The game features different styles of non-stop action, colourful graphics and great sound, making a great overall package. Despite its difficulty, the grab factor is strong and it is enjoyable. I particularly liked the way the heroine is drawn. Overall, a worthy descendant of the previous games.
See also: Space Moves (Retrobytes Productions).
Space Moves
(Retrobytes Productions, 2020)
Commando Shura has been given orders to travel to an enemy space station and find and destroy a laser weapon on board the station. This game, which is an updated version of the winning entry in the 2015 #CPCRetroDev Game Creation Contest, is divided into two parts that load separately, like many Spanish games of old. In the first part, you must negotiate enemy territory and reach the space station by various means – firstly by parachute, then by quad bike, and finally by spaceship. In the second part, you must explore the station and find six disks to insert into the computers around the base in order to retrieve the code for arming the bomb that will destroy the laser. The graphics are very colourful and the second part is fun to play (even if the music isn’t to my liking), but the first part unfortunately suffers from an unreasonably high difficulty level.
See also: Space Moves (#CPCRetroDev).
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
jgonza (part 1),
jgonza (part 2),
Saberman,
XeNoMoRPH.
In Space Pest Control you take control of a space commando in a dangerous mission – you must eliminate all the aliens and return home alive! As you have already guessed, this is an interesting shoot-’em-up. The graphics are nice and colourful. The sprites are drawn with imagination and care while their animation is fast and smooth. The sound includes both an in-game tune and sound effects which cooperate nicely. The whole package reminded me of the game Deep Core on the Amiga. The gameplay is fast enough but more enemies and a higher difficulty level would be appreciated; for some reason I feel that this game could be more complete than it actually is.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
jgonza.
A racing game set in the future featuring advanced hover bikes. The race starts with you lined up with your opponents. As soon as the countdown has finished, off they blast into the distance while you slowly build up your speed. Sadly, this game is just too difficult. You struggle to control the hover bike correctly and the slow frame rate mixed with the small play area makes for a very boring game.