''Gridrunner'' is a

fixed shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre 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 charact ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games 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 gener ...

written by

Jeff Minter Jeff Minter (born 22 April 1962) is an independent English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 19 ...

and published by Llamasoft for the

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the ...

in 1982. It was ported to the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as the ''ZX81 Colou ...

, Commodore 64,

Commodore PET The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor, ...

and

Dragon 32 The Dragon 32 and Dragon 64 are home computers that were built in the 1980s. The Dragons are very similar to the TRS-80 Color Computer, and were produced for the European market by Dragon Data, Ltd., initially in Swansea, Wales before mov ...

. Many remakes and sequels have followed, including versions for the Atari ST,

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore International, Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and sign ...

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile or Windows Embedded Compact operating system that has some of the abilities of modern desktop PCs. The name was introduced by Microsoft in 200 ...

, Microsoft Windows, and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...

Gameplay

The game is similar to the

Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...

arcade game ''

Centipede Centipedes (from New Latin , "hundred", and Latin , " foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', lip, and New Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, an ...

'', with long, segmented enemies that progress in a zig-zag fashion and can be broken apart. Players control a small ship that can fire upwards and move freely around the screen. The player must also avoid pulses emitted by the X-Y zappers which patrol the edges of the grid. The game has twenty waves of enemies to complete.

Development

Llamasoft released ''Gridrunner'' in 1982 for the unexpanded

. The game was written over the course of a single week, which Minter refers to as "the best week of work I've ever done." Although it draws its inspiration from the arcade game ''

''Cowan, Danny.
Jeff Minter Readies Updated Gridrunner For iOS
''. IndieGames. 22 February 2012. with the concept of a snake-like enemy descending the screen through a series of obstacles (mushrooms in centipede, pods in Gridrunner) it plays much faster. Versions of the game appeared for several of the home computers of the early 1980s. The name of the game was inspired by posters advertising the film ''Blade Runner''.

Reception

In April 1983, the game topped the US

computer game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...

sales chart. In 1984, ''The Commodore 64 Home Companion'' advised "forget the plot; fast action is the name of this game".

Legacy

In 1983, Minter released ''Matrix: Gridrunner 2'', which retained much of the original's gameplay, but introduced new enemy types and a scrolling background. It was first published on the Commodore 64, and ported to other platforms. This title was released in the US as ''Attack of the Mutant Camels'', a title taken from an unrelated Llamasoft title released in the UK. A second sequel, ''Voidrunner'', followed in 1987, which abandons the grid backgrounds, and features more colorful and elaborate graphics. In 1991, Llamasoft released ''Super Gridrunner'' for the Atari ST. The first 32-bit title in the series, it added power-ups to the series for the first time, while retaining the basic elements of a single-screen shooter. This would be the last entry in the series for over a decade, during which time Jeff partnered with Atari on updates to the ''Tempest'' and ''Defender'' series. ''Gridrunner'' was revived in 2002 with ''

Gridrunner++ ''Gridrunner++'' is a shoot 'em up written by Jeff Minter for Pocket PC, then for Windows. It has since been ported to Mac OS X and iOS. It was only available as shareware for download from the Llamasoft website, with a registration fee of £5. I ...

'', a

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

downloadable title released on Llamasoft's website. Featuring retro sprite-based visuals and faster-paced gameplay on a scrolling field, it proved popular with fans. A sequel followed in 2009. Originally developed under the working title ''Gridrunner+++'' it was released on Windows PCs as ''Gridrunner Revolution,'' after a newly introduced rotation mechanic. This version also made heavy use of Minter's "light synth" tech, with colorful, psychedelic visuals. It's also the only title in the series with a full musical soundtrack.

Later versions

In 2012, Llamasoft released a reimagined version for

, simply titled ''Gridrunner.'' This version pared the game back to a style reminiscent of early 1980s arcade games. ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson. Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...

'' called it "the best shooter on iOS," and ''Touch Arcade'' described it as "a retro remake done right". It was later ported to Android as shareware. In 2018, Llamasoft released ''Minotaur Arcade Vol. 1'' on PC and PS4. This compilation release features a new iteration of ''Gridrunner'' and ''GoatUp'', using 3D voxel-based graphics. Like the iOS version before it, this version is simply titled ''Gridrunner,'' and features a retro-arcade aesthetic, but unlike its predecessor, it features changing 3D perspectives, new enemy types, and new power-ups.

References

External links

*
''Gridrunner''
for the Atari 8-bit family at Atari Mania
''Gridrunner''
for the Commodore PET

for the Atari ST at Atari Mania
''Gridrunner''
at Amiga Hall of Light

''Trace'' 1 (April 2017)
Disassembled source code for the C64 and Vic20 versions of Gridrunner
at GitHub {{Jeff Minter 1982 video games Fixed shooters Llamasoft games Atari 8-bit family games VIC-20 games Commodore 64 games Amiga games IOS games Quicksilva games Video games developed in the United Kingdom