Aggressor (VIC-20)
Posted: March 23rd, 2017, 10:03 pm
Aggressor for the VIC-20
Original Cost: $30 on Cartridge
Programmer: Jeff Minter of Llamasoft
Release Year: 1982
Rarity: You can usually find it on Ebay, sometimes in lots
Current Cost: $10
Variations/AKA Andes Attack
https://youtu.be/ErUcul1UpUI
Defender came out in the arcades in 1981, and became one of the games that partitioned ‘hard core’ arcaders from the casual quarter droppers. The scrolling and sense of a larger world to keep track of, the hard controls, all made the game stand-out, and it was natural to try and port it. For the VIC-20, one of the ports is Aggressor.
Its not just a Defender clone, but because of when it was being coded, around the Falklands conflict, it originally had elements about being UK pilot bombing Buenos Aires and playing Rule Britannia. These were removed, and it was released in Europe as Andes Attack, and in the US as Aggressor.
It’s a joystick game, not keyboard. This helps the gameplay over the WASD kind of games. Gameplay is simplified from Defender – no hyperspace. Graphics are simplified too, such as your ship's explosion is a tiny little rectangle of sadness. The flight of your ship is quite jerky, but still responsive enough that it always seems to be your fault when you run into the floating mines. The VIC has no hardware sprites (unlike the Atari 8 bit computers), so its amazing what programmers could do with it. There is a lot of flicker in your ship for instance, but it doesn't bother you when playing and maybe its exaggerated on the video. Like many VIC-20 games, your shots do seem to float across the screen - when reversing you can often still see the shot you made going the other direction still hanging in space. There can be cheap kills on respawning too close to a mine too.
Putting on an autofire attachment is a godsend, as otherwise you become more of a sniper, while with autofire you can focus on dodging and flying more. There is no radar screen. Reversing course is almost comically sluggish. Flying into enemies or enemy bombs happens with annoying frequence, but then, that's the gameplay after all.
Graphically, the enemies and civilians are pretty nondescript blobs (better in Andes Attack), but the mountains do a good job of looking like vector graphics. The ship reminds me of a giant key, although possibly inspired by Battlestar Galactica.
While there are better Defender clones (maybe even on the VIC), this is one I do keep coming back to and try to beat my high score.
Original Cost: $30 on Cartridge
Programmer: Jeff Minter of Llamasoft
Release Year: 1982
Rarity: You can usually find it on Ebay, sometimes in lots
Current Cost: $10
Variations/AKA Andes Attack
https://youtu.be/ErUcul1UpUI
Defender came out in the arcades in 1981, and became one of the games that partitioned ‘hard core’ arcaders from the casual quarter droppers. The scrolling and sense of a larger world to keep track of, the hard controls, all made the game stand-out, and it was natural to try and port it. For the VIC-20, one of the ports is Aggressor.
Its not just a Defender clone, but because of when it was being coded, around the Falklands conflict, it originally had elements about being UK pilot bombing Buenos Aires and playing Rule Britannia. These were removed, and it was released in Europe as Andes Attack, and in the US as Aggressor.
It’s a joystick game, not keyboard. This helps the gameplay over the WASD kind of games. Gameplay is simplified from Defender – no hyperspace. Graphics are simplified too, such as your ship's explosion is a tiny little rectangle of sadness. The flight of your ship is quite jerky, but still responsive enough that it always seems to be your fault when you run into the floating mines. The VIC has no hardware sprites (unlike the Atari 8 bit computers), so its amazing what programmers could do with it. There is a lot of flicker in your ship for instance, but it doesn't bother you when playing and maybe its exaggerated on the video. Like many VIC-20 games, your shots do seem to float across the screen - when reversing you can often still see the shot you made going the other direction still hanging in space. There can be cheap kills on respawning too close to a mine too.
Putting on an autofire attachment is a godsend, as otherwise you become more of a sniper, while with autofire you can focus on dodging and flying more. There is no radar screen. Reversing course is almost comically sluggish. Flying into enemies or enemy bombs happens with annoying frequence, but then, that's the gameplay after all.
Graphically, the enemies and civilians are pretty nondescript blobs (better in Andes Attack), but the mountains do a good job of looking like vector graphics. The ship reminds me of a giant key, although possibly inspired by Battlestar Galactica.
While there are better Defender clones (maybe even on the VIC), this is one I do keep coming back to and try to beat my high score.