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''Armalyte'' is a horizontally
scrolling shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a subgenre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of character m ...
in the style of ''
Gradius is a series of shooter ( shoot'em up) video games, introduced in 1985, developed and 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. ...
'' released for the
Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in ...
by
Thalamus Ltd Thalamus Ltd (also known as Thalamus) 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. History Genesis ''Thalamus Ltd'' was created in 1986 as an in-hous ...
. It was marketed by
Thalamus The thalamus (: thalami; from Greek language, Greek Wikt:θάλαμος, θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter on the lateral wall of the third ventricle forming the wikt:dorsal, dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of ...
as the sequel to ''
Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
'', which was also a left-to-right scrolling shoot 'em up, but ''Delta'' was created by a different programming team.


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
boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...
. 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. A crucial difference with a number of earlier scrolling shooters is that any weapons upgrades gained during a level are not lost if the player's ship is destroyed, but at the start of the next level, the player's ship loses all upgrades (except for the Batteries and Generators).


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'. 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.


Development

The in-game credits list the members of Cyberdyne Systems as John Kemp (systems programming), Dan Phillips (main programming), and Robin Levy (all graphics, attack waves, and level design). Music and sound effects were provided by Martin Walker, who was the programmer of Thalamus' fourth release '' Hunter's Moon''.


Reception

''Armalyte'' was critically acclaimed by several magazines and was given the following awards and/or ratings: * Gold Medal in issue 46 of ''
Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' is a computer games magazine covering games for computers manufactured by Commodore International, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazi ...
'' magazine, with an overall rating of 97%. * SuperStar from ''
Commodore User ''Commodore User'', (also referred to as ''CU'') later renamed to ''CU Amiga'', is a British magazine initially published by Paradox Group before being acquired by EMAP. Timeline ''Commodore User'' was launched in October 1983 with an initial pr ...
'' magazine. * C&VG Hit from ''
Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') is a British-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot web ...
'' magazine. * A FAB award and a 93% rating from Computer Games Week magazine. * Best 8-bit Graphics of the Year at the
Golden Joystick Awards The Golden Joystick Awards, also known as the People's Gaming Awards, is a video game award ceremony; it awards the best video games of the year, as voted for originally by the British general public, but is now a global event that can be voted ...
.


Legacy

Cyberdyne Systems announced that ''Armalyte 2'' was being developed for the Commodore 64, with an intended 1990 release date, but the moving away of key team member Robin Levy made it impossible to progress on the graphical elements, and the game was ultimately cancelled. In 1991 a game called ''Armalyte'' was released on the
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
and
Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...
by Arc Development. This wasn't a port of ''Armalyte'', but a
remake A remake is a film, television series, video game, song or similar form of entertainment that is based upon and retells the story of an earlier production in the same medium—e.g., a "new version of an existing film". A remake tells the same s ...
created by Arc Developments. A remake for the
Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...
was in the works, but never completed. In 2013 Dan Phillips and Robin Levy formally announced that they had reunited and were resuming work on ''Armalyte 2'', but they stressed that due to the geographic separation between them and their lack of access to working Commodore 64 hardware, it would be a long time before the game was finished, if ever, and that it might consist of no more than a single level.


References


External links

* {{MobyGames, id=/armalyte 1988 video games Amiga games Atari ST games Cancelled ZX Spectrum games Commodore 64 games Golden Joystick Award winners Horizontally scrolling shooters Multiplayer and single-player video games Thalamus Ltd games Video games developed in the United Kingdom