Developer(s) Raffaele Cecco Release date(s) 1987, 1989 Mode(s) Single player | Publisher(s) Hewson Genre(s) Run and gun | |
Platform(s) Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Enterprise 128, ZX Spectrum | ||
Exolon is a run and gun game programmed by Raffaele Cecco and published by Hewson in 1987 for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC 8-bit computers. It was later converted to Enterprise 128 and to the 16-bit Amiga and Atari ST platforms.
Contents
Gameplay
The player takes control of a futuristic soldier across several flick-screen levels of gameplay. The screens that make up these levels are filled with various generic aliens as well as gun emplacements, homing missiles, landmines and other hazards. The player can defend himself with both a gun and rocket-propelled grenades. The two different weapons are effective against different enemies.
The enemies themselves are very varied taking the form of flying aliens of the type traditionally found in shoot 'em up games as well as homing missiles, fixed guns, tanks, land mines, swarming red pods and "crushers" which shoot out of the ground.
Part-way through each level, there is a pod in which the player can "upgrade" until the end of the current level to an armoured exoskeleton with improved weapons and armour. Attempting to finish the level without this upgrade results in a score bonus.
Legacy
In December 2005, Retrospec released an updated remake of Exolon for Windows-based computers. It can be downloaded from the Retrospec website, [1]. It was also one of the games featured on the C64 Direct-to-TV, released in 2004.