Armalyte
Encyclopedia
Armalyte is a shoot 'em up
video game developed by Cyberdyne Systems in 1988
.
, including a weapons upgrade feature and large end-of-level Bosses. Armalyte was released for the Commodore 64
by Thalamus Ltd
and was the company's sixth software release. In 1991
a game called Armalyte was released on the Amiga and Atari ST
by Arc Development, this wasn't a port of Armalyte but was based on early work done by Cyberdyne Systems towards a sequel. Unfortunately contractual problems and a lack of money stopped Cyberdyne Systems for completing Armalyte 2 on the Commodore 64
, Arc Developments were left to complete the Amiga and Atari ST
versions without any guidance.
Armalyte was marketed by Thalamus as the sequel to their earlier release Delta which was also a left-to-right horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, however Delta was created by a different programming team.
The in-game credits list the members of Cyberdyne Systems as
Music and sound effects were provided by Martin Walker, who was the programmer of Thalamus' fourth release Hunter's Moon.
On its release Armalyte retailed for £9.99 and £12.99 for the cassette and disk versions, respectively, in the United Kingdom
.
. Beating the Boss allows the player to progress to the next level. There are eight levels in all. Smaller Bosses are encountered midway through each level and these also have to be beaten to progress further.
During each level the player encounters numerous small enemy ships, many of which fly in fixed formation. Levels also feature scenery which can destroy the player's ship if touched. Weapons can be upgraded through an upgrade system (see below).
A crucial difference with a number of earlier Gradius
-style shoot 'em ups is that any weapons upgrades gained during a level are not lost if the player's ship is destroyed. However, at the start of the next level, the player's ship loses all upgrades (except for the Batteries and Generators, which are only reduced to one level above their initial level provided the player had upgraded them beforehand.)
A Two Player Mode is available (see below).
A number of "munitions pods" are positioned throughout the levels and, if shot repeatedly, transform sequentially into a variety of power-ups:
The power-ups are collected simply by colliding the ship with them. If the munitions pod is captured without having been converted to a power-up then it makes the ship invulnerable for 5 seconds.
When there is charge in the ship's battery, the player can fire a 'Super Weapon'. There are three types of Super Weapon each of which is fired in the forward direction:
Firing these weapons reduces the charge in the battery, with Type A the greatest drain, and Type C the least.
The drone ship in single player mode is indestructible and follows the player's ship around the screen. When the main ship fires any of its weapons, the drone will fire the same weapon at the same time. The drone ship can be made to freeze in its position by pressing the space bar on the keyboard, thus allowing the main ship to move independently.
In the Two Player Mode, the drone ship is replaced by another ship which is fully controllable by the second player and has all the same features. The number of Munitions Pods is doubled in the Two Player Mode.
. Short presses of the joystick fire button fire the standard lasers on the ship, and holding the button down for a longer time fires the Super Weapon (if there is enough charge in the battery).
To toggle between the three types of Super Weapon the player must press the Commodore key on the computer keyboard. The automatic drone ship (in single player mode) can be controlled by pressing the space bar on the keyboard: the default mode sees the drone ship follow the player's ship around the screen, but pressing the space bar freezes the drone ship at its current position.
The run/stop key is used to pause the game, and the Q key is used to quit the game.
In the two player game, the '?' key is used to switch the type of the second player's Super Weapon.
Shoot 'em up
Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...
video game developed by Cyberdyne Systems in 1988
1988 in video gaming
-Events:*June — Nintendo releases the last issue of "Nintendo fun club news";*July — Nintendo releases the first issue of Nintendo Power magazine.-Notable releases:*January 8, Konami releases Super Contra....
.
Summary
It is a left-to-right horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up in the style of GradiusGradius
The Gradius games, first introduced in 1985, make up a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper...
, including a weapons upgrade feature and large end-of-level Bosses. Armalyte was released for the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
by Thalamus Ltd
Thalamus Ltd
Thalamus Ltd was a British computer game developer that published titles for a number of 8-bit and 16-bit platforms during the late 1980s and early 1990s.-Genesis:...
and was the company's sixth software release. In 1991
1991 in video gaming
-Notable releases:*Microprose creates Civilization, Sid Meier's most successful game .*Electronic Arts releases James Pond 2 and Road Rash for Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, starting a series of games that were popular in the 1990s....
a game called Armalyte was released on the Amiga and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
by Arc Development, this wasn't a port of Armalyte but was based on early work done by Cyberdyne Systems towards a sequel. Unfortunately contractual problems and a lack of money stopped Cyberdyne Systems for completing Armalyte 2 on the Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
, Arc Developments were left to complete the Amiga and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
versions without any guidance.
Armalyte was marketed by Thalamus as the sequel to their earlier release Delta which was also a left-to-right horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up, however Delta was created by a different programming team.
The in-game credits list the members of Cyberdyne Systems as
- John Kemp (systems programming)
- Dan Phillips (main programming)
- Robin Levy (all graphics, attack waves, level design)
Music and sound effects were provided by Martin Walker, who was the programmer of Thalamus' fourth release Hunter's Moon.
On its release Armalyte retailed for £9.99 and £12.99 for the cassette and disk versions, respectively, in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Gameplay
The aim of Armalyte is to progress to the end of a long, horizontally-scrolling level where the screen will cease scrolling and battle will commence with a BossBoss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
. Beating the Boss allows the player to progress to the next level. There are eight levels in all. Smaller Bosses are encountered midway through each level and these also have to be beaten to progress further.
During each level the player encounters numerous small enemy ships, many of which fly in fixed formation. Levels also feature scenery which can destroy the player's ship if touched. Weapons can be upgraded through an upgrade system (see below).
A crucial difference with a number of earlier Gradius
Gradius
The Gradius games, first introduced in 1985, make up a series of scrolling shooter video games published by Konami for a variety of portable, console and arcade platforms. In many games in the series, the player controls a ship known as the Vic Viper...
-style shoot 'em ups is that any weapons upgrades gained during a level are not lost if the player's ship is destroyed. However, at the start of the next level, the player's ship loses all upgrades (except for the Batteries and Generators, which are only reduced to one level above their initial level provided the player had upgraded them beforehand.)
A Two Player Mode is available (see below).
Weapon system
The player's ship (coloured blue) begins the game with a forward-firing laser that produces two shots, and a battery with a single storage cell that powers the ship's 'Super Weapon' (see below). In the one player game there is also an automatic drone ship that has the same capability as the main ship and which follows the main ship around the screen. In the two player game the drone is replaced by a second ship (coloured red and with a different design) that is fully controllable by the second player.A number of "munitions pods" are positioned throughout the levels and, if shot repeatedly, transform sequentially into a variety of power-ups:
- Extra forward fire - increases the number of forward shots from two to four.
- Tail fire - adds rear-firing shots.
- Vertical cannon - adds vertical fire (both up and down directions on screen).
- Trident - adds two flanking guns to enhance the forward firing rate.
- Converge - adds two more shots to the forward-firing gun by diverting ammo from the tail gun.
- Generator - increases the recharge rate of the ship's battery.
- Battery - adds an extra storage cell to the ship's battery, up to a maximum of four.
The power-ups are collected simply by colliding the ship with them. If the munitions pod is captured without having been converted to a power-up then it makes the ship invulnerable for 5 seconds.
When there is charge in the ship's battery, the player can fire a 'Super Weapon'. There are three types of Super Weapon each of which is fired in the forward direction:
- Type A - a long, sustained blast that can pass through scenery features.
- Type B - releases several small laser blasts around the spacecraft.
- Type C - similar to Type A, only the blast is much shorter and does not pass through scenery features.
Firing these weapons reduces the charge in the battery, with Type A the greatest drain, and Type C the least.
The drone ship in single player mode is indestructible and follows the player's ship around the screen. When the main ship fires any of its weapons, the drone will fire the same weapon at the same time. The drone ship can be made to freeze in its position by pressing the space bar on the keyboard, thus allowing the main ship to move independently.
In the Two Player Mode, the drone ship is replaced by another ship which is fully controllable by the second player and has all the same features. The number of Munitions Pods is doubled in the Two Player Mode.
Game controls
The player's ship is controlled with a joystickJoystick
A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling. Joysticks, also known as 'control columns', are the principal control in the cockpit of many civilian and military aircraft, either as a center stick or...
. Short presses of the joystick fire button fire the standard lasers on the ship, and holding the button down for a longer time fires the Super Weapon (if there is enough charge in the battery).
To toggle between the three types of Super Weapon the player must press the Commodore key on the computer keyboard. The automatic drone ship (in single player mode) can be controlled by pressing the space bar on the keyboard: the default mode sees the drone ship follow the player's ship around the screen, but pressing the space bar freezes the drone ship at its current position.
The run/stop key is used to pause the game, and the Q key is used to quit the game.
In the two player game, the '?' key is used to switch the type of the second player's Super Weapon.
Awards
Armalyte was critically acclaimed by several magazines and was given the following awards and/or ratings:- Gold Medal in issue 46 of Zzap!64Zzap!64Zzap!64 was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 . It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact....
magazine, with an overall rating of 97%. - SuperStar from Commodore UserCommodore UserCommodore User, known to the readers as the abbreviated CU, was one of the oldest British Commodore magazines. A publishing history spanning over 15 years, mixing content with technical and games features...
magazine. - C&VG Hit from Computer and Video GamesComputer and video gamesA video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
magazine. - A FAB award and a 93% rating from Computer Games Week magazine.
External links
- Armalyte for the C64 on MobyGamesMobyGames-Platforms not yet included:- Further reading :* Rusel DeMaria, Johnny L. Wilson, High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games, McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; 2 edition , ISBN 0-07-223172-6...