''Phantom Slayer'' is a

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 ...

released by Med Systems in 1982 for the

TRS-80 Color Computer The RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer, later marketed as the Tandy Color Computer and sometimes nicknamed the CoCo, is a line of home computers developed and sold by Tandy Corporation. Despite sharing a name with the earlier TRS-80, the Color Co ...

and

Dragon 32/64 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 m ...

. Written by Ken Kalish, ''Phantom Slayer'' is considered by some an early forerunner of the modern

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

genre.

Gameplay

The player moves around a randomly generated maze, attempting to kill the eponymous

phantoms Phantom may refer to: * Spirit (animating force), the vital principle or animating force within all living things ** Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living Aircraft * Boeing Phantom Ray, a stealthy unm ...

by shooting them. As each level is cleared, a new maze is created, and the phantoms became harder (requiring more shots) to kill. The game combines a relatively sedate pace and a then-rare

first-person point of view A first-person narrative is a mode of storytelling in which a storyteller recounts events from their own point of view using the first person It may be narrated by a first-person protagonist (or other focal character), first-person re-teller ...

(using simple fixed-perspective graphics) to produce high levels of dramatic tension for a game on such primitive hardware. As the player moves around the maze, the only indication that a phantom is encroaching is an ominous sound played when the phantom is a few squares away from the player's position. The player can adjust the setting for the audio range finder to indicate the phantom's presence at close or further number of squares to help locate the phantom. A power-up time is required for the player's weapon, leading to the player holding a position in order to charge the weapon while stalking (or being stalked). The phantoms can take multiple hits (usually two). Combined with their creepy ability to get in close and blind-side the player, this is effective for elevating the fear factor.

References

External links

Phantom Slayer
- Fan site, includes more screenshots and a (legal) download of the game binary, for use with

emulator In computing, an emulator is hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run software or use peri ...

s. 1982 video games Dragon 32 games Maze games TRS-80 Color Computer games Video games developed in the United Kingdom {{maze-videogame-stub

Gameplay

See also

References

External links