The Atari ST is blessed with a gigantic and assorted public domain library, which includes a fantastic gaming section. Here is one such example, Annihilator by Robert HC Leong that was released back in 1991 through the esteemed Budgie UK label.Annihilator features lots of baddies swarming above your space ship called Insectoids and you need to move left and right to dodge their attacks whilst slamming on your fire button like a crazy fool. There are bosses to battle with and you will be grateful for those infrequent power-ups that replenish your ship's shield or increase its firepower. Does this sound a little familiar? Yes, of course, it does but what it lacks in originality it is compensated by an obviously talented programmer. Annihilator performs more like a quality commercial game with its smooth as silk visuals and awesome gameplay. Okay let's get down to the nitty-gritty, this is a simple yet thrilling shooter and it certainly throws you back in time to an 80s arcade.
Annihilator is a professionally produced game and plays beautifully. Definitely a Crash Smash!
LINKS
- AtariMania have this and all Robert's games within their ST database
- Check out the GamerBlitz website which was an interesting find, to say the least ;-)
- Peter Putnik has made a hard drive installable version of Annihilator!
Annihilator has an in-built level skip function. Pause the game by pressing SPACE and then hold SHIFT and hit keys F1 - F10 for the required level. I did try this for the video below but I died because I was pressing the "fn" key instead of SHIFT. Grr I'm starting to hate emulation - best played on a REAL Atari ST!!
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