Flak (video game)

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Flak
Flak (video game) Cover Art.jpg
Publisher(s) Funsoft
U.S. Gold
Designer(s) Alain Marsily
Programmer(s) Atari 8-bit
Yves Lempereur
Apple II
Robert A. Schilling
Commodore 64
Yves Lempereur
Troy Lyndon
Platform(s) Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Release1984
Genre(s) Scrolling shooter

Flak: The Ultimate Flight Experience is a vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari 8-bit computers designed by Alain Marsily, programmed by Yves Lempereur, and published by Funsoft in 1984. [1] It was ported to the Apple II, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum home computers. Flak was heavily inspired by the 1982 Namco arcade video game Xevious . Most critical reviews were middling or harshly negative.

Contents

Gameplay

The player flies a ship over a vertically scrolling landscape, firing on land bases, on the way to destroy a fortress containing an enemy CPU.

Reception

The game received mixed to poor reviews. In ANALOG Computing , Steve Panak called Flak "the worst mistake your wallet ever made" and advised readers to "avoid it like radioactive waste", [2] while Electronic Games called it "a challenging game that requires some almost impossibly fine maneuvering". [3] Your Spectrum called the game a rip-off of Xevious , giving it a 0.8/5 and stating that it "should've been drowned at birth." [4]

Commodore User was more lenient, giving the game a 3/5 in "value for money" and praising the presentation, though complaining about excessive difficulty, disappointing sound, and long load times. [5] Writing for TV Gamer, J.P. Thompson praised the Commodore 64 version's "ultra-smooth scrolling" and called it "a truly addictive game". The review, which gave it a 3.5/5, cited the game's difficulty as something that would have players "staying up most of the night attempting to reach [its] penultimate phase". [6] Contrary to other contemporary reviews, Personal Computer Games remarked that the Atari 8-bit version is "too easy" and therefore "lacks any truly addictive qualities", giving it a 6/10. [7]

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References

  1. ↑ "Flak". Atari Mania.
  2. ↑ Panak, Steve (November 1984). "A Software Cornucopia". ANALOG Computing . No. 24. pp. 30–31.
  3. ↑ Kohl, Louise (February 1985). "Flak". Electronic Games . pp. 33–34.
  4. ↑ "Flak". Your Spectrum . No. 16. July 1985. p. 42. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  5. ↑ "Flak". Commodore User . Vol. 2, no. 2. November 1984. p. 50. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  6. ↑ Thompson, J.P. (November 1984). "Flak". TV Gamer. p. 43. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  7. ↑ T.T. (September 1984). "Flak". Personal Computer Games . p. 37. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
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