C64 Review of Armalyte from Issue 43
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After the Damocles force destroyed the hostile Hsliffan Khanate, the spacial backwater known as Delta became a wasteland littered with disintegrated spacecraft. The few pilots who entered Delta returned with tales of hulks bearing artifacts of tremendous technological advancement.
Many disregarded the stories as jokes or legends, but one man believed. After a particularly crippling Stock Market crash. Woodward. the chairman of a Terran mega-corporatcon sought out the nearest bar where he could drown his sorrows. Three Andromedan Wilt-wines later, he found himself being talked to by a bewhiskered bar-fly whose tongue was obviously oiled with liquor. He was an ex-member of the Damocles force, who was court-martialled and drummed out of the service because of his drinking habits. Yes, he said, he had often been through the Delta and seen the hulks and their treasures, but heavily-armed robot defence systems prevented anyone from looting the ships.
Then the man grinned a drunken grin and drew out a metallic cylinder from inside his oily raincoat. This, he told Woodward, was the only piece of Hsliffan technology anyone had managed to bring out of Delta Woodward had heard rumours of the treasures, and though the wine had long-since taken effect, he was sober enough to know that this was the key to his company's financial problems. He bought the man a drink: he had a plan that couldn't fail.
Yeah, that's what he told you as well, but now it's your butt up in Delta, flying your tiny fighter into the jaws of eight levels of Hsliffan defences, on your own apart from the highly dubious-looking guy they picked to partner you. You have to admit, these Hsliffies may have been treacherous sons-of-bitches but they sure knew how to build spaceships, and these structures are incredible ... It's gonna be a shame to blast them to pieces.
And there's bound to be plenty of that - blasting, that is. Woodward had your ships kitted out with the latest in laser armaments and rechargeable super-weapons. But then he would. Wouldn't he? He won't make any money if you don't come back.
Hey, what are these crystals hanging in space? Better give 'em a discharge of heavy light... wha ... ? They just transform into bits of machinery when you shoot them... Look an you're gonna crash into that one! AAAAAAGH!
Uh? Nothing happened. Wait, look there a is! It's attached itself to the ship. It's a laser unit, and it's patched into your fire control. Try hitting the next crystal with more shots... Now run into it ad you've got... rear lasers What else can you get? Vertically firing lasers, double lasers, converging lasers, and a battery and a generator to recharge the super weapon faster.
Try collecting two forward laser units and you get faster fire ...
This is going to be easier than you thought... Or maybe not ...
This review was typed in/OCRed by Brigadon - Zzap!64 Online
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ZzapBack
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In the spirit of ZzapBack, you can have your say about how the game reviewed above, stands up in the cold light of today. Has it aged
badly or is it still worth a few plays? Read other peoples thoughts and post your own.
The current ZzapBack rating is : 74%
Check out the most recent ZzapBack comments.
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Rate It!
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Login or Register at the forums if you want to be able to edit your comments
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Sheldon Cooper - 7 Feb 2015
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What Horizontal shooter has rear fire or enemies coming from behind? Definietly not R-type, Salamander, Katakis etc. Poor game design!
Also 3-way fire is better then Vertical fire!
Rating : 50%
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c64 legend - 28 Jul 2014
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Silkworm is much better! 11 levels & all in 1 load! U can play as jeep or chopper!
Ikari warriors is also superb! So many sprites & u play at your own pace!
Rating : 50%
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Anonymodai_bonus - 29 Jun 2014
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Err...Wizace...you're thinking a out Delta not Armalyte.
I think some of the other posters must be making the same mistake.
And the graphics and sound on this game are top notch.
Rating : 95%
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dai_bonehead - 29 Jun 2014
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Bought a 64 on eBay just to play this. Excellent game. But it is too hard. Think I have only seen level 6 once!
That said, it must be the pinnacle of arcade shooters on the c64.
Rating : 95%
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Cooldude - 5 May 2011
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Overrated to the max! TOO HARD FOR ITS OWN GOOD! Therefore its NOT a FUN game!
I showed to my Spectrum & Master System friends this game. THEY LAUGHED!-I NOW KNOW WHY. THIS IS NOT A GAME TO SHOW OFF C64!!! THE COLORS SUCK!!
Rating : 60%
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Conrad - 2 Apr 2011
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Wow, what an awesome game. It had really big and detailed bosses to destroy for a C64 game. I played this game TOO MUCH. My score was in the 50 million plus range as I finished the game and just kept on going. It is difficult, but with A LOT of practise all levels become easy to beat. I love shoot em ups and this one stood the test of time due to its playability. It was an awesome shooter on a C64!!!
Rating : 100%
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MR. FIREBUTTON - 27 Aug 2010
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TOO HARD FOR ITS OWN GOOD. WHO WANTS TO GET TO LEVEL 6 THEN DIE AND RESTART?
BTW I CAN DESIGN BETTER BOSSES ON SEUCK!!!!
Rating : 55%
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overrated - 4 Jul 2009
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poor use of color, silly boomerang bosses. try x-out or turrican instead.
Rating : 55%
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jarle støt - 1 Apr 2009
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i really can't believe it when people are dissing the music from this game.. "hubbard wasn't available..." tsk.. what a lame comment! beautiful and majestic soundtrack that suits the game perfectly. martin walker did outstanding stuff on the c64, check out his music for snare and citadel, for similar dramatic and clever style.
Rating : 100%
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Wizace - 23 Jul 2008
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I like to dictate the action - I don't like the computer doing it for me. Which is why I find Armalyte very frustrating and quite boring. There is a distinct pattern to follow throughout the levels, which soon proves tedious, and you have to collect certain weapons at the right time, otherwise progress is impossible - regardless of how skillful you are. If bi-directional or multi-directional scrolling had been incorporated it might have been a different story, but simply flying in a straight line, encountering a set pattern of opposition is not very appealing. Also - if the ship had a limited supply of ammunition, instead of the existing time limit, there would have been more skill involved as the player would have to be shot conscious. Armalyte is highly polished and mildly playable, but on the whole I enjoy Turrican, Bubble Bobble, Wizball more.
Rating : 60%
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R-Type freak - 7 Dec 2007
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talk about copying R-type!
Unbelieveable!!
Lucky Irem did not find out.
Rating : 1%
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qwerty - 7 Dec 2007
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IMHO Silkworm & X-out are superior.
The 2-player mode is annoying since the other player can push U into enemies. This makes the 1-player mode is easier to complete the game with. The gameplay & enemies are also very generic.
The graphics lack colour & there are little in the way of background graphics or parallax scrolling-just stars. There is also no in-game music.
Rating : 60%
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clarkman - 17 Oct 2007
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sooo slick! and frantic!
Rating : 100%
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hello - 16 Oct 2007
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GREAT GAME!
Rating : 100%
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Syntax error - 9 Mar 2006
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This is the best game ever to grace the ol' 64.
The two player mode is frantic and enormous fun.
The graphics is jawdropping.
Rating : 100%
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Turrican - 19 Sep 2005
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poor by my standards
Rating : 1%
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hjs - 8 Jul 2005
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I wonder how many hours I spent on this?
This was the ONE I showed to my Spectrum friends to see their jaws drop!
Rating : 99%
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CraigGrannell - 6 May 2005
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Zzap! always went ape over Thalamus games, but I never felt such accolades were richly deserved. Armalyte is one of the few exceptions, in that it almost deserves its high rating. The game looks great, although the overall effect is marred a little by slightly weak spot effects and a middling title tune. I agree with SLF that Hookability was over-rated at the time—the game takes time to get into, and isn't as immediate as many shoot 'em ups. Overall, though, the game has largely stood the test of time, even if I don't think it's quite Gold Medal material today.
Rating : 91%
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7Zoot7 - 1 Nov 2004
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classic game - quite simply i'll remember it for the rest of my days...
Rating : 95%
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Pondy - 24 Sep 2004
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I would agree, this is one hell of a stand-out game on the 64. I remember when I first played it thinking that it was like having an arcade machine at home. And to be able to have 2 players in amongst all that action was mind blowing. Shame about the Martin Walker music and effects, but I guess Hubbard wasn't available...
Rating : 95%
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SLF - 7 Jun 2004
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This one deserves all the praise it got and even more. In my opinion it is the best shoot'em up on the c64. Armalyte's polish is unbelievable, its graphics among the very best ever seen on our trusty old machine, its all-too-important collision detection perfect, its two players mode exhilarating (with the way too cool touch of two different main ships), its gameplay very satisfying and addictive and its challenge really long-lasting. It is a very fair game and still stands out today. In my opinion hookability was a bit overrated, as its unique superweapons / shields / power ups system takes a while to understand, and an ingame soundtrack would have improved even more the fun to be had. Other than that, the game is faultless and its lastability value higher than what stated in the original review.
Pr 92 Gr 98 So 80 Ho 85 La 97
Rating : 97%
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Paul Glancey
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We've seen some brill Commodore blasts late, but Armalyte has to take the cake as one of the best to date. Everything about the game is so highly polished it really does knock the competition into a cocked hat. Graphically, Armalyte is staggeringly good, with works of science fiction art for sprites and backdrops. Game-play meets this high standard whether playing in single player mode with a remote ship or double player the action is thoroughly exhilarating. In the latter, I particularly liked the way that both players can play either very competitively, bumping each other into aliens and stealing your opponents weapons before he can get to them, or as a team, taking it in turns to get through tiny gaps in the landscape. However, I had most fun when playing with a mixture of both strategies, as Maff will testify. Armalyte is just brilliant, and any shoot 'em up fan should be ashamed to miss out on it.
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Maff Evans
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Well, after saying in the Salamander review that I thought that Delta was the be-all and end-all of progressive shoot 'em ups before Imagine's release, the Delta follow-up game arrives on the scene and blows every other game of the type out of the water (well it would if they were in water and not in space). Armalyte's graphics are startlingly good, with perhaps the best use of shading I've seen on any 64 game. The scrolling is smooth, the sprites and backgrounds colourful and the amount of sprites on screen is incredible. Firing the second Superweapon for the first time brought yelps of amazement and enthusiasm from the reviewers as all aliens in the vicinity flew apart (groo). Enough of the graphics, onto the gameplay... Well, all I can say is it's brilliant. I'm being as quick as I can to tell you how staggeringly good it is so I can have another go! A huge round of applause and congratulations to Cyberdyne systems for such a stunning debut. When's the next game due? I can hardly wait, but playing Armalyte should help fill the gap!
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Gordon Houghton
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This is incredible! Everything about it is virtually flawless: the graphics are some of the best I've seen on the Commodore, not only for their aesthetic appeal but also for the way they're used on-screen - the combination of threatening metallic space terrain with multicoloured attack patterns creates an amazing feeling of involvement in the intense action. And there are so many aliens on screen at once - add these to a cluttered landscape and you think you'll never get through alive! If you thought the landscape graphics were good just wait till you see the end-of level aliens - some of them are beyond belief! It's packed with superb touches, from the evocative Martin Walker soundtrack to the 'intelligent' in-game aliens; the collision detection is perfect - just generous enough to allow freedom of movement in the tightest gaps. If we'd had this in time for the Def Guide this issue, it would easily have been in the top 5: it's fantastic! I can't praise it highly enough - if you miss Armalyte you're missing one of the best 64 shoot'em ups of all time.
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Ratings
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PRESENTATION 91%
Options include two simultaneous players, one player with remote ship, choice of super weapons, scrolling starfield on/off. Reasonable level multiload and easily-read status displays.
GRAPHICS 98%
Probably the best looking sprites and backdrops ever seen in a Commodore game of this type.
SOUND 81%
Good Martin Walker title screen/loading music and spot effects.
HOOKABILTY 95%
Beautiful graphics and exhilarating blasting action suck you in.
LASTABILITY 93%
Eight lengthy levels to see and the craving for ever larger scores will keep you at it.
OVERALL 97%
A brilliant blaster whose graphics and gameplay knock others for six.
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