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Xenon is a 1988 vertical scrolling shooter video game, the first developed by The Bitmap Brothers, and published by Melbourne House which was then owned by Mastertronic. It was featured as a play-by-phone game on the Saturday-morning kids' show Get Fresh.[7]
| Xenon | |
|---|---|
 Amiga Cover art | |
| Developer(s) | The Bitmap Brothers |
| Publisher(s) | Melbourne House |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum |
| Release | 1988 |
| Genre(s) | Vertically scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Publication | Score |
|---|---|
| Crash | 84% [1] |
| Computer and Video Games | 9/10 [2] |
| Your Sinclair | 9/10 [3] |
| ACE | 869/1000 [4] |
| Atari ST User | 10/10 [5] |
| Power Play | 4.5/10 [6] |
Xenon was followed in 1989 by Xenon 2: Megablast.
Description
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According to the game's instruction manual,[8] the player assumes the role of Darrian, a future space pilot in the Federation, currently at war with a mysterious and violent alien species called the Xenites that has lasted a decade. In response to a mayday transmission from Captain Xod following an attack on his trading fleet, Darrian is forced to travel through Xenite-occupied territory in order to support.
Unlike most vertically scrolling shooters, the player craft has two modes, a flying plane and a ground tank. The transition between crafts can be initiated at almost any time during play (except during the mid- and end-of-level boss sections, as well as certain levels where a certain mode is forced), and the mode chosen depends on the nature of the threat the player faces.[2] Destroying some enemies released power-ups the player could catch to enhance their ship.
Ports
editOriginally released for the Atari ST, Xenon was quickly ported to other platforms: the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX and ZX Spectrum.An arcade machine version of the game was also released through Mastertronic's Arcadia division which ran on Commodore Amiga hardware.[9]
Reception
edit| Publication | Award |
|---|---|
| Sinclair User | SU Classic |
| Your Sinclair | Megagame |
Xenon was almost universally well-received on launch, with reviewers from magazines covering a range of platforms all scoring the game very highly.[2][5][3][1][4] Only German magazine Power Play bucked the trend, awarding it a score of 4.5 out of 10.[6]
Writing in New Computer Express about the 1991 budget re-release, Stuart Campbell stated that although the graphics were "gorgeous" and had "never really been seen before", the gameplay was "simply tedious" and the game was the first to "turn 'style-over-content' into an artform".[10]
References
edit- ^ a b King, Phil (March 1989). "Xenon". Crash (62): 17.
- ^ a b c Lacey, Eugene (March 1988). "Xenon". Computer and Video Games. No. 77. EMAP. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
- ^ a b "Xenon". Your Sinclair (40): 50. April 1989.
- ^ a b Smith, Andy (April 1988). "Xenon". ACE (7): 53.
- ^ a b Waddilove, Roland (May 1988). "The Ultimate Arcade Game". Atari ST User: 42. Archived from the original on 2016-02-16.
- ^ a b "Xenon". Power Play.
- ^ "Xenon". The Bitmap Brothers. Retrieved 2009-08-19.
- ^ Lemon, Kim. "Xenon - Manual". Lemon Amiga. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
- ^ "Xenon". MobyGames. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
- ^ Stuart Campbell (31 August 1991). "Here It Comes Again". New Computer Express. Future Publishing. p. 51. Retrieved 24 November 2021.
External links
edit- "The Bitmap Brothers - Xenon". Archived from the original on August 28, 2019.
- Xenon (1988) at MobyGames
- Xenon at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
- Xenon can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive