Death Weapon

The Repugnant Swarm were vanquished at Stercore 64 – see Stercore XD for further reference and possibly a headache - but, after an extensive period of wound licking, want revenge for the humiliation they’ve suffered at Earth’s hand. They’ve also learnt from their previous mistakes because, rather than appearing at once, they are instead sending attack craft in one at a time via long distance translation jumps, terminating in the proximity of Earth Station 544D52. The Death Weapon has been sent along to defend that sector, armed to the teeth and operated by the best that Earth’s forces have to offer... you.

Since the incoming craft aren’t entirely corporeal on arrival - they won't move and give off an uncanny light – you can’t collide with them, but your bullets can and that’s worth doing both to keep things under control during the battle (a busy sector of space makes avoiding collisions more difficult) and to earn some extra points for your trouble. Using the joystick on its own will send the Death Weapon in the appropriate direction and bullets streaming in the opposite one, so in order to fire forwards it’s necessary to hold the button down whilst moving.

Important note: The game utilises a couple of techniques to generate colours which aren't part of the regular palette on the C64. These involve either switching between two colours at fifty frames per second or sprite objects only being visible on every second frame. Although this effect is relatively subtle, the developers ask that sufferers of photosensitive epilepsy take appropriate precautions when playing.

The source code for this game can be found at Github.