WorldMags.net The ColecoVision was arguably the biggest casualty of the North American videogame crash. Noted for its great arcade conversions, Kieren Hawken looks a bit deeper into this system’s library to find some hidden gems ■ DEVELOPER: IMAGIC ■ YEAR: 1983
» [ColecoVision] The gorgeous title screen gives a good impression of what is to come.
» SUPER CROSS FORCE ■ DEVELOPER: SPECTRAVIDEO ■ YEAR: 1983
■ The original Cross was a very underrated space shooter for the Atari 2600 by Spectravideo, best known for making the best-selling Quickshot range of joysticks. This sequel of sorts takes that same great game and beefs it up a bit. There are greatly improved graphics and sound as well as more enemies to dispose of. The key feature of Cross Force is the two cannons, one at the top and one at the bottom, that you move left and right along the edge of the play area. When you press fire they shoot in tandem with the shots following the same axis, anything caught in the middle is obliterated! A fun, entertaining blaster. 48 | RETRO GAMER
■ Imagic’s Nova Blast really took us by surprise. At first it seems to be nothing more than just a rip-off of the classic Williams arcade game Defender. In fact it’s much more than that and actually combines elements of Atari’s Missile Command, along with a few features of its own, to create a winning formula. Red Alert! The four capsuled cities of the water planet Hydron are under fierce enemy attack. You must pilot Nova 1, the last of the Novon fleet, over the turbulent seas. Blast Orion Fighters, Gravitines and six other types of airborne aliens before they obliterate
» BEAMRIDER ■ DEVELOPER: ACTIVISION ■ YEAR: 1983
■ Activision released a multitude of outstanding games in the early Eighties, but one of the titles you rarely hear talked about is the excellent Beamrider. This is a shame, because we have always felt that it’s a real gem in Activision’s extensive library. Like many of Activision’s earlier games it borrows from other arcade classics, in this case Konami’s Juno First and Atari’s superb Tempest. You move back and forth along a 3D perspective grid taking out the enemy as they come towards you before using your missiles to destroy the mothership and move onto the next level. Beamrider is fast, furious and fun – everything that a good shooter should be.
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the cities or damage your ship. It’s an admittedly cheesy plot and sounds like an instantly forgettable blaster, but bear with us. Like Defender, the game is played out like a horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-up with your ship being able to fly in both directions. You are also equipped with a laser weapon as well as bombs, but unlike Eugene Jarvis’s game these bombs are dropped from the bottom of your craft, more akin to Scramble. This is so you can take out the flying aliens in the sky as well as the ships and submarines in the water below. Another feature Nova Blast
» PIT STOP ■ DEVELOPER: EPYX ■ YEAR: 1983
■ Epyx is best known for its ‘Games’ series, Impossible Mission and the Atari Lynx, but in its early years it also created this excellent driving game. This was probably the first racer on the market to provide the elements of realism we would take for granted in the genre. Your car retains damage that needs to be repaired when you pit stop, which is in itself a nice touch. It even shows you what parts of the car are damaged by changing their colour. Pit Stop also features an on-screen map of the track you are racing on and requires you to refuel your car mid-race. It’s no slouch in the speed department either!