Gaming History 101

Up to this point, we’ve had a relatively small number of shmups that don’t fit into a simple criteria: either vertical or horizontal raster arcade shmups.  Sure there was some discussion about on-rails titles with Silpheed and even the mention of old school vector graphics in our introductory shmup article, but there are some games technically called shmups that fit a different category.  These are games where you control a single character or duo and battle large numbers of enemies in rudimentary level designs.  The actual size and shape of the level is irrelevant, the point is that you are getting bombarded on all sides and must survive against a mass of trigger-happy enemies.  From a certain perspective, this is considered a shmup and I definitely agree with that sentiment.

It’s important to note that the title originally started as a remake of Hover Attack, a Sharp X1 type-in game from 1983.  For those not familiar, a “type-in” game was a program you purchased in book form for a few dollars, you would type in the (often times) hundreds of lines of code.  Usually the program didn’t run the first time, various syntax errors would claim responsibility, and it was always because of a single character issue on literally thousands of lines of code.  This was before floppy disks, it was a different time.  Anyway, Hover Attack was a game that allowed a ship or and carrier to move in all different directions and fire independent of its movement.  It was one of the first games to do so and for comparison is a very basic version of a twin stick shooter.  This is why the game/level design seems a bit dated for a game that released in 1999 at the end of the N64’s life.  It eventually became its own property and remains a unique independent title, although certain concepts like the streaking of bullet patterns remain from Hover Attack.

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