1943

I didn't like this one... not till I played the arcade version in MAME. Simple straight forward scrolling shooter, with increasing difficulty and level variation. Offers powerups which is nice for an oldie like this. Playable but not stunning

Slap Fight
Oh dear! oh dear!! What a hidden gem of an old school shooter! Played this on the Spectrum originally, where it was ok but difficult to play because of a mono game screen. On the ST however it matches the arcade 'near enough' you get the choice of Music or SFX, nice as the tune is go for the SFX so you (I think) get an audible response to being shot at! Powerup scheme like no other! Start with a basic ship, you can upgrade the Speed several times ( highly recommended ) then you have the ability to morph into several other powered up states. Graphics ( at least all that I have seen ) are very nice, mostly easy to make out what's going on. Opponents follow predetermined patterns, though watch out if you die and have to start from a different section as it will be game over very quickly. Don't know how big this game is but I haven't reached the end yet! since... 1990! lol, spilt into levels and sections within levels I believe. Certainly one of the best old school vertical shooters to reach the home computer!

sn00py
cheers

Okay, FWIW, here's my writeup on 1943:

1943


Wow, another vertical shooter review? Well, I can't help it, I didn't feel like writing about the rest of the games on the menu!

Anyway the problem now is, what to write for such a popular title that isn't known to people? The second problem is, since I haven't played the arcade version too much, I can't compare it and see if it's a good conversion! It's a good ST game, I know so much. It runs at a constant 50fps even with lots of stuff happening on screen, so the action is fast and frantic, as it should be. You can choose the powerups you get while they're floating on the screen, so if you're low on energy you can shoot the powerup to convert it to POW and then pick it up.

The graphics and sound serve their purpose fine, with the small exception of the sea pattern which I really don't like and makes the whole game seem a bit crap.

Minor things aside, this is a great game for the ST.