''Laser Hawk'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter published for

Atari 8-bit computers 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, ...

by UK-based

Red Rat Software Red Rat Software was a Manchester, UK-based video game developer and publisher founded by Charles Partington, Harry Nadler, and Don Rigby that operated between 1985 and 1993. The company first centered on the Atari 8-bit family home computers, befo ...

. It was created in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, New Zealand by programmer

Andrew Bradfield Andrew "Andy" Bradfield (1966 – 21 September 2001) was a video game programmer from New Zealand best known for his work on games for the Atari 8-bit computers. He created ''Laser Hawk'' (1986) and its sequel ''Hawkquest'' (1989). He teamed wit ...

and artist Harvey A. Kong Tin. A sequel, ''HawkQuest'', also from Bradfield and Kong Tin, was released in 1989. Andrew Bradfield died in 2001 at age 35.

Development

Work on ''Laser Hawk'' started in 1985 and took about a year to complete. ''Laser Hawk'' was originally called ''Hot Copter'' by Bradfield. Red Rat Software came up with the name ''Laser Hawk.''

Reception

A review of ''Laser Hawk'' in the January 1987 issue of '' Atari User'' concluded, "While the game concept is perhaps getting a little long in the tooth, Red Rat has tweaked it nicely, treating it in a thoughtful and refreshing way. What it may lack in originality it makes up for in finesse." The overall score was 8 out of 10.

Legacy

''Laser Hawk'' was later included in the ''4 Star Compilation, Volume 1'' published by Red Rat, along with ''Escape from Doomworld'', ''Domain of the Undead'', and ''Panic Express''. The same team created the sequel, ''HawkQuest'', released in 1989. Harvey Kong Tin was responsible for the overall design. Development started in 1986 with the finished game using four floppy disk sides at 90K apiece.

References

External links

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''Laser Hawk''
an

at Harvey Kong Tin's site 1986 video games Atari 8-bit computer games Atari 8-bit computer-only games Horizontally scrolling shooters Video games developed in New Zealand Red Rat Software games {{shmup-videogame-stub