''Cardiaxx'' is a

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

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 ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

for 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 ...

. It was developed by

Eclipse Design An eclipse is an astronomical event which occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three c ...

and published by Electronic Zoo in 1991, although it was originally published by Electronic Zoo. The game features a spaceship as it flies through various levels of varying graphic styles. Each level has 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, ...

at the end, and each level is separated by a sub-level of avoiding

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

s while the next level loads from the

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, a diskette, or a disk) is a type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined with a ...

Gameplay

Development

''Cardiaxx'' was developed by David Mariner and Jon Mitchell of Eclipse Design, with Josef Karthauser later joining them. The game's original publisher, Electronic Zoo, failed to release funds owed to Eclipse Design for its development shortly after its public release in 1991. As a result, the

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 ...

version was never released, and legal action followed. However, Electronic Zoo closed down during the legal proceedings. The game was later released by Team17, but again no funds beyond the initial signing fee were ever released. Therefore, Mariner and Mitchell still retain all rights to ''Cardiaxx'' to this day.

Reception

''Cardiaxx'' received generally positive reception from video game critics.

References

External links

* * 1991 video games Amiga games Amiga-only games Electronic Zoo games Science fiction video games Scrolling shooters Team17 games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Matthew Simmonds {{scroll-shooter-videogame-stub