AlWo73

Oct 22, 20233 min read

Old Skool Shoot-Out: Part 1

OLD SKOOL SHOOT-OUT!

Part 1

As Confucius once said "There are old shooters and there are bold shooters. But there are very few old, bold shooters". Wise words indeed, though he swore like a trooper when failing continuously to get past the first bit of Salamander. Here we have a bit of a contest to see which scrolly shooter was the best on the Spectrum. Space Invaders and Galaxian clones are thankfully excluded, since they don't have the scrolls. And anything over-resembling Scramble is right out too, there are limits. I've rounded up ten of the best and have tried to limit my waffle, so here's how it's gonna look:

Introductory spiel

5 things we love

5 things we hate

What the papers said

A dinosaur's opinion

MOON CRESTA

(Incentive, May 1985)

This early arcade licence came out of the blue for most. Incentive didn't do like most companies of the time and produce Space Invaders, Galaxian and Frogger clones. Rather they specialised in mountaineering adventures and maze games starring a capital X. So when Ian Andrew acquired the arcade hit Moon Cresta rights for a grand, things were about to go intergalactic for them.

Your ship splitting into 3 is novel, if pretty bizarre

Multi-colour glowy stars make for a pretty setting for destruction

Bonus stages, in this case docking, are always welcome for variety

Good noisy sound FX are quite arcade-like

An impressive game for its age. You go, old timer!

The alien patterns are quite repetitive

There are no other backgrounds, just the twinkly night sky

You only get 3 lives - standard, but annoying

The aliens group together and laugh at you when you die - rude!

Fails to feature a cameo appearance by Zippy from Splat

Crash - 90% Smash

YS - 5/10 Hit Hit Miss

SU - 3*

Sinclair Programs - 38% (idiots)

Your Computer - 3/5

ZX Computing - 5/5

Spectrum Computing user score - 72%

OVERALL 66%

Arcade Styling - 85%

Playability - 76%

Unique Features - 81%

OVERALL 81%

1942

(Elite, October 1986)

Elite liked a licence, in fact most things they did involved one, the... licence tarts! This was another arcade convo, which unusually dispensed with the predictable spacey scenario and substituted a WWII setting instead. People didn't seem to rate the arcade original much, so wonder if this game will sink like the Bismark in this little competition. If the Bismark was a plane...

5 lives - yes! Some generosity in a shmup at last!

Lovely clear background, uncluttered by excessive detail

A blue screen, not black for a change. This is very welcome

Good checkpoints, not setting you too far back at any time

Nice plane flipping and take-off animations

Sparse sound FX, really need a bit more

Big planes taking you from behind can sometimes cause distress

Graphics are good, but a little small and on the functional side

No extra life for completing Level 1. Beyond that, who knows? Not me

No sonic rendition of "War... what is it good for?"

Crash - 63%

YS - 8/10

SU - 5*

Ace - 4/5

Spectrum Computing user score - 69%

OVERALL 76%

Arcade Styling - 72%

Playability - 85%

Unique Features - 73%

OVERALL 77%

LIGHT FORCE

(F.T.L., November 1986)

As unlikely as Incentive doing an arcade shoot-em-up was Gargoyle doing one, albeit disguised as Faster Than Light. The masters of the graphic adventure threw Cucchulain into a spaceship to give him a change of scenery, since the Marsport follow-ups were nowhere to be seen. And they ended up with a smash hit, even being lauded for the game's music when there wasn't any in it. That takes skill.