AstroPanic '94 is a shooter by Dan Ackerman and appears to be a remake of the 1986 original by Charles Brannon. It was released in 1994(!), with updates and bonus sounds a year later. The premise is dead simple - shoot the aliens in what feels like a silly mash-up of Space Invaders and Missile Command.
We control a tank that moves left and right along the ground, blasting upwards at a bunch of alien ships. They’re a bit daft, flying around in oddball patterns, so you’ll need to dodge them while banging on the mouse button (you can use the keyboard, but the mouse is miles better). As is real hardware, Hatari would often freeze up and was painfully slow just to load the game - my Mega STe (4MB/TOS 2.06) ran it flawlessly.
AstroPanic '94 is a no-frills shooter, but loads of fun. Perfect for a quick blast and highly recommended!
Line of Fire was converted from the arcades in 1990 by Creative Materials for US Gold and is basically a "crosshair" shooter. It begins from behind enemy lines as we're trying to escape never-ending hoards of angry bad guys. They're annoyed because we've sneaked in and pinched their brand-new toy - a Rapier Gun. Of course, we have no intentions of returning it so must now escape in a blaze of glory. A-Team style!
The gameplay is simple: move the mouse onto the enemy soldiers and hit fire to send 'em to hell. Kill anything nasty, including the hardware that they use: a truck, plane, boat, or even their incoming missile attacks. Well, that's about as technical as this shooter gets - lots of frantic killing and loud explosions. Great stuff!
Oh yeah, so let's start by taking a look at the first screenshot...
The map shows our escape route through the base, jungle, rocky canyon, town, etc.
And bring a friend too!
One or two players is supported for a single or a (much-needed) co-op onslaught of pure adrenalin. Solo is controlled using the mouse which is precise but I feel the crosshair should have been bigger because it sometimes got lost among the explosions. Try it - hit the SHIFT key to spark a nuclear explosion (aka grenade) but be thrifty because these are best left for the end-of-level bosses. Trust me, you'll need 'em all.
We begin trapped inside the enemy compound with baddies lining up the corridors ready to kill us! The display shows our health and the number of grenades - both of which can be topped up by shooting the corresponding supply boxes lying on the ground. There's a boss waiting at the end of every stage, be it two ugly brutes firing missiles, a plane stuffed with a cargo of airmen, or a ghost train and its endless supply of soldiers.
Okay, shall we take a stroll through the many levels of this crazy game? Yes, a good idea...
- Eight Stages To Freedom -
Level 1 - The Enemy Camp
This is where we broke into the enemy camp, kicked in their sandcastle and make the bad guys cry. However, tons of smurf-looking soldiers were alerted (very odd) and they're mean and sneaky - some even hide inside the floor panels and ceiling vents. Once you reach the end it's time to battle two enormous bad guys who are just asking to eat those grenades.
Overall, I really enjoyed this opening stage albeit very short. Should have been much longer!
Level one kicks in with an assault of Smurf soldiers!
It's not long before a couple of bosses appear but I brought fire!!
Level 2 - Destroy The Enemy Jungle Base
Those smurfs failed to stop us and we made it outside to jump into our jeep and head for the jungle. Lots of enemies are lurking in these muddy waters, along with choppers and planes dropping bombs of mass destruction! The action feels unbalanced for solo gamers but the helicopter boss is pretty cool and a good fight without being too complicated.
Overall, this stage proves the developers used ST Basic and had no beta testers! Let's take a look...
Chug...Chug...Chug... alongside an unused Blitter...
Be quick and get blasting everything you see on the screen. Gun love time!
Level 3 - Exit By Speed Boat
Pretty much more of the same as the previous level - but this time we're riding through the soggier parts of the massive jungle. Watch out for the soldiers hiding on the river banks and you might even see the odd Rambo impersonator. The two bosses are back but this time they've brought some help for what is quite a fatiguing battle.
Overall, this level is more of the same which isn't great unless you have a faster computer?
It's good fun actually. Essentially, my pessimistic attitude is because of the framerate.
Okay, the two guys have brought in some help. It's very tough so expect to lose lives.
Level 4 - Fighting In The Canyon
Like the jungle, this time the graphics have changed to an odd-looking rocky canyon. Hmm, those walls don't look right, especially when you see soldiers hovering in mid-air! Anyhow, this level is another which is stuffed full of gun love and there's even an aeroplane boss that lunges rockets at your face.
It's probably better than the jungle stages but just as crazy with too many enemies eating away at your credits.
Enemies everywhere! Shoot - quicker - shoot some more. No, be quicker!
Gotta be impressed by the boss scenes, especially as no Blitter is utilised.
Level 5 - Do Or Die Battle In The Desert
Landscape graphics are gone and the display is reduced to objects and sprites. It's now that I noticed the odd blue background - it really stands out because there's nothing else. Looks very strange. However, the benefit of this sudden change is a decent framerate which means it plays better than all the other levels. The boss stage is a train, which is something solo players should fear!
Overall, a great level and I wish the others were as fast and responsive as this one. I enjoyed it :o
It looks... odd... but fear not there's a bunch of fun to be had here!
The train level is great actually, but there's a lot to do and it seems to last forever.
Level 6 - Foes Await In The City's Ruins
Finally, we've made it into a rough shantytown for a terrifying urban siege. Terrifying because that horrendous framerate has returned with a vengeance - I think this stage is the most sluggish of all? To be honest, it's a bit boring and also far too tough in solo. Where's the boss stage?
Overall, it's okay but all a bit... meh because of the dreadful framerate.
The idea behind this stage is actually very good but poorly implemented.
I'd had enough by the time this screenshot was taken and that's not good, is it?
Level 7 - Evade The Enemies Aircraft
We're on the runway and zoom off into the skies for aeronautical hell. However, this stage is tacky with a lame submarine boss - which is rubbish. Overall, this feels like a stocking filler and is the worst level so far.
Wow, I said that after playing the previous stage? Dang!
I've really had enough...
Oh, go away! (Yes, I've really really really had enough of the game now)
Level 8 - Fly To Your Base By Helicopter
Glad I didn't throw in the towel because Howling Mad Murdock would have loved this stage! The enemy chucks everything at you for one final attempt to get their fancy gun back! Don't get defeated because the end is very near. Sadly, I did, because it's insanely difficult! Which means I failed to save the Western World from the dreaded Terrorists.
Ah well, at least I tried...
That blue background might look daft, but imagine it black. See, it's actually a good idea!
No matter how much I tried, I failed to complete the final stage by my lonesome.
Graphics and Sounds
Visually, Line Of Fire is an oxymoron as it impresses and shocks in equal measure. Overscan is utilised with top and bottom borders removed to provide tons more pixels. I loved the comically bold palette, the sprites are huge and those explosions are ginormous! Sadly, the sprites look like I've drawn them and the framerate is shocking. In fact, it's possibly the worst performance I've seen from an Atari ST which is a sad thing to type.
The audio failed to impress. It begins with a nice title screen chiptune with a humorous intro but it's all downhill afterwards. The sound effects are your gun and grenades. So it's your gunfire that you're constantly hearing, which sounds like a room full of dancers shuffling their feet. Ugh, turn down the volume.
A mixed bag of goodies alright but the Blitter would have helped a lot... sigh...
Gotta take my hat off to the developers for using overscan albeit at the expense of framerate? :/
The CryptO'pinion
I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of crosshair shooters but Line Of Fire shocked me. There's no 2D landscape with pop-up cardboard soldiers waiting to be shot. Instead, we have a first-person perspective similar to something like Narco Police but in overscan. Which is kinda cool for a machine with only half a meg Ram!
However, this conversion is screwy and appears to do everything to make the Atari ST perform like a Vic-20. I would never compare a home computer to that of an arcade machine with its faster processors, sprite scaling hardware, etc but this feels rushed and should have been better. I don't understand what Creative Materials was thinking. Then again, aren't these the guys that gave us Street Fighter 2 and Days Of Thunder?
I enjoyed Line Of Fire because it's different from what I usually play. It's better with a friend as it's not balanced for solo play, but at least it provides a few continues to keep you interested. I'm glad I didn't buy this terrible game, but I still enjoyed rampaging through the various levels. Worth playing - but only with a friend.
[ my video recording shows both colour and monochrome games ]
Let's take a big step back in time
Straight out of the golden age of Atari's retro gaming archives is Missile Command, a phenomenal shooter I played a lot, but more so on my old Speccy thanks to Ocean's Armageddon, a fantastic conversion.
This Cold War-era crosshair shooter is about protecting the cities of Zardon from a constant ballistic missile attack. Aliens from Krytol noticed how prosperous Zardon is so are free-rolling in and take everything. You are Zardon's only hope; grab hold of the mouse and use your arsenal to defend us from annihilation!
Doesn't matter whether you run in colour or mono so check out these screenshots...
Angry aliens, again?
This has always been a cool game and the ST received a faithful conversion that feels as good as I remember. There is support for 1/2 players which can be configured to enable/disable other features - like the enemy's multiple warheads and smart bombs. Initial attack waves start off slowly at and sedate pace (skippable) but the war soon gets crazy when the Krytolians use faster missiles and smart bombs. Trying to detonate them is tricky, especially during the heat of battle when you don't wanna run out of ammo!
Unlike other home conversions, the ST makes convenient use of its tank mouse for perfect and precise control. Both mouse buttons are used to fire a limited supply of ammo - the left button fires from the left base and, well, I'm sure you've guessed what the right button does? The controls are simple and genius.
Okay, it's time to view some apocalyptic screenshots of doom...
8-Bit graphics and they rock!!
Ok, visually, don't expect to be blown away. The graphics are typically crude for an early arcade game - most of the screen is a blank canvas waiting to be covered by missile trails. However, that's the charm of early retro games when gameplay mattered most. You know, I do admire those blocky cities (which I'm supposed to save from an explosive death) but I also love the whacky colours and font. Yep, it's silly... but so am I.
The effects are fine but I am a little disappointed Atari didn't roll their sleeves up and go that extra mile! We have heard far better from the YM chip and the game is hardly pushing the Atari ST, so why not use samples? Hmm, it's a little bland in the audio dept and definitely needed something with a little pizzazz.
Yes, the audio needed to use samples but that won't stop the next roll of screenshots...
The CryptO'pinion?
Missile Command is such a simple game and also one of the best from that early era. Fans of the original should appreciate what an authentic arcade conversion is, and one that certainly brought back lots of great memories for me. This is fast, frantic and bucket loads of fun so that's a thrilling win in my book.
A timeless classic and I'm proud to rate this a nuke skin-blistering 92%.
Missile command easily earns the accolade of an AtariCrypt SMASH!!
I've been browsing through the Floppyshop archives and stumbled upon a game called Operating Garfield by Dave Brankin. As you might imagine, it's inspired by Operation Wolf but sparked my curiosity because its an Atari STe game. The Blitter pushes the 8-way scrolling and sprites. Not only that but the audio is played using DMA stereo hardware.
Okay, so how is this different from Operation Wolf? Well, it's a shameless ripoff and is also a crosshair shooter using the mouse. The story is different! Time, aliens are invading Earth but they have been watching and figured us easy prey if they disguised themselves as Garfield. Yep, that lazy cat from the TV, so I think they made the wrong assumption!!
The action takes place over a cityscape with its skyline littered with invading Garfield's heads firing rockets. Using the mouse for control, blast the rockets and Garfield heads. It's that simple but, while you're frantically blasting away in this pseudo-3D missile command, look out for ammo caches and smart bombs that will aid your progress. There is also a Defender-style map of the enemy at the top/left but I found that near-useless if I'm honest!
This game is good and a bundle of fun for a few plays. Sadly, the difficulty is extraordinarily high so rarely did I get the chance to see later levels. I also thought the scrolling (framerate?) could have been smoother considering the hardware. It's better when using a real computer but nothing like Asteroidia, and this would have helped tremendously. However, the worst are those T2 samples which are ... good ... but grate after a short while. Gimme chip any day!
Operation Garfield isn't to be taken seriously and provides a few minutes of stress-busting action! Just take it as a cheap Op.Wolf ripoff with loads of pointless yet gratifying Garfield-killing. Not great but a good game worth playing.
Tomtar is a shooter released in 1993 for the Atari STe by UTEN (NewCore, XiA, Toxic Twins & Unit 17). A "tomtar" is a gnome, and they breed like bacteria, so they will eventually take over the world unless something is done! We asked the Grim Reaper for help, but there are too many for him to handle, so we needed divine intervention - in the form of a machine gun!! Yep, we all know where this is going so let's lock and load to help the mythical Reaper destroy all the Tomtars in what I can only describe as the craziest 5 minutes of your life.
In the right corner of the screen is an Orch - kill it to advance to the next level. Use the mouse to shoot, but beware because this isn't going to be easy, because these little critters can walk, run, bounce, and fly across the screen. Controls work well with the mouse, but I would have preferred the right button to perform another function like throwing a grenade, this would have been superb... The gameplay becomes frantic and more chaotic the further you progress, but I must admit that it's a shame the spooky backdrop doesn't change.
A stupid game that offers nothing more than a maddening few minutes blasting Tomtars. It's brilliant and highly recommended for a few plays - grab it from Demozoo (who also have a cutdown STFM version).
My high scores are:
78,250 (under emulation)
94,740 (using my own Atari STe).
What are yours? Can you beat me?? Didn't think so...
