Gridrunner++ -- great shooter for a cab

[vputz]

Jeff Minter's latest.

If you haven't run into his work, Jeff Minter was the guy that did Tempest 2000.  He specializes in addictive, ridiculous, and rather psychedelic shooters.

His latest is a rework of an old Vic-20 game he did looooong ago; Gridrunner++ is basically a trackball-controlled shooter in which you control an auto-firing ship; snakelike enemies bounce around the arena and you do them in.  Periodically, they drop mines which launch 4-way shots if you let them sit for too long.

And then things get a little weird.  Sheep (yes, you read that correctly) periodically descend from the top of the screen; if you collect one, your bonus multiplier increases, your ship's firepower increases, and you are rewarded with an encouraging message (along the lines of "lovely pretty sheepie!").  Collect enough sheep, and eventually the Giant Floating Sheep Head of Doom begins soaring around the screen killing enemies left and right.

You also have a special weapon, the "sheepiezapper", which works much like the superzapper in Tempest but lasts much longer depending on your multiplier (ie how many sheepies you have rescued).

Bizarre?  Yes.  But somehow strangely addictive.  It's like an old-style early '80s shooter, complete with fairly primitive graphics.  At least worth a shot--it's earned a place on my cab (works using WineX under Linux as well) even though it insists on staying in a window (no actual full-screen mode, although you can maximize the window).

Llamasoft home page: http://www.llamasoft.co.uk
Gridrunner++ page: http://smokey.blackcatnetworks.co.uk/~llama/Gridrunner/gridrunner.htm

Just... trust me, it's fun.  I also highly recommend his "llamatron 2112" for any fans of Robotron that were just looking to see that game remade in chunky graphics and featuring laser-spitting llamas and camels.  The two-player mode is absolutely berserk...

-->VPutz

[)p(]

its awesome!

i run it on my cab with the desktop rotated so it fits my vertical screen perfectly
(it was designed for a handheld pc with a vertical screen orientation)

peter

[Martoon]

I heartilly second the recommendation of this game.  I've had it on my desktop machine for several months now, but it never occured to me to try it with an arcade trackball.  It works beautifully!  Big thanks for the idea, vputz!

[rchadd]

hey i used to love Yak's games on the c64 many years ago... i remember Attack of Mutant Camels and Lazerzone

also anyone else playing his version of Tempest on their cab?

how do these look/play on arcade monitor at 640 x 480 resolution?

are the keys remappable for playing on a cab without a keyboard?

I wonder if Jeff is into the mame cabs scene?

[rchadd]

for those running computer emulators here is page with downloads of llamasoft stuff

http://www.medwaypvb.com/llamadloads.htm

[)p(]

I wonder if Jeff is into the mame cabs scene?

he sure has a mame cab...and has always been very supportive of emulation....

...and a shiny tempest from us members of yakyak not so long ago :-)

peter