''Save New York'' is

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, 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 typ ...

published on cartridge 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 Creative Software in 1983. The player has to protect

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

from invading

aliens Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, a lifeform with ext ...

. The game takes place on a single static screen with various

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

buildings and a subway tunnel running underneath them. At either edge of the screen is an

airplane An airplane (American English), or aeroplane (Commonwealth English), informally plane, is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, Propeller (aircraft), propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a vari ...

launching pad.

Gameplay

The game can be played by one or two players. Player one has a white airplane and player two has a blue one. In a two-player game, both airplanes are on screen at the same time. During play, aliens resembling large

spider Spiders (order (biology), order Araneae) are air-breathing arthropods that have eight limbs, chelicerae with fangs generally able to inject venom, and spinnerets that extrude spider silk, silk. They are the largest order of arachnids and ran ...

s begin to descend from the sky, flying towards the buildings. If left alone, they will eat parts of the buildings, eventually causing them to collapse. The player has to shoot the aliens to stop them from eating the buildings. When all aliens on a level have been killed, the game progresses to the next level. The player earns bonus points for each apartment still left intact. Another game element is a plane passing over the city from time to time dropping fuel canisters which the player has to catch to refuel his airplane. When the airplane is landed on its launching pad, its pilot can descend down to the subway tunnel. There he has to avoid the subway trains which can crush him on contact. On later levels, some aliens drop

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s which hatch upon landing on the ground, revealing a little blue alien which descends down to the subway tunnel and heads towards the buildings' basement. If the alien reaches the basement, it will start eating it, eventually causing the whole building to collapse. Killing this alien usually requires visiting the subway tunnel. The players' airplanes can also shoot the buildings and each other, but this is not beneficial towards completing the level.

Reception

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, covering on all Commodore color computers, primarily Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 1984. The ...

'' wrote that "The pace of ''Save New York'' is frantic, the action constant, and the gameplay enjoyable", especially with two players. ''The Commodore 64 Home Companion'' stated that cooperative play helped it avoid being "just another shoot-the-mutants game".

References

External links

*{{lemon64 game, id=2226, name=Save New York
''Save New York''
at GameBase64 1983 video games Commodore 64 games Commodore 64-only games Creative Software games Multiplayer and single-player video games Science fiction video games Shoot 'em ups Video games developed in the United States Video games set in New York City