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Outlaws | |
---|---|
Publisher(s) | Ultimate Play the Game |
Platform(s) | Commodore 64 |
Release | Christmas 1985 [1] |
Genre(s) | Shooter game |
Mode(s) | Single player |
Outlaws is a video game for the Commodore 64 released by Ultimate Play the Game in 1985. In a break from earlier arcade adventure titles such as The Staff of Karnath and Entombed , Outlaws is a straightforward shooter game and does not feature the aristocrat adventurer Sir Arthur Pendragon.
Outlaws was released on the Commodore 64 at the same time as another Wild West-themed title, Gunfright , for the ZX Spectrum. The game was created by brothers Dave and Robert (Bob) Thomas. [2]
Typically for an Ultimate release, players are given a tantalising and cryptic introduction:
The game was poorly reviewed. Zzap!64 rated the game with 35%, stating that "Ultimate [had] surely seen better days" and that "there is nothing much to say about Outlaws, except how mediocre it is", however the graphics were generally praised as being "crisp" and having "excellent equestrian animation." Commodore User were similarly unimpressed, describing the game as a "massive disappointment". Although they thought the graphics were of a high standard and sound fairly effective, the music was considered to be "awful" and "well below standard". Overall it was said to "lack depth" and could have been better if there was more for the player to do. [5]
Ashby Computers and Graphics Limited, trading as Ultimate Play the Game, was a British video game developer and publisher, founded in 1982, by ex-arcade game developers Tim and Chris Stamper. Ultimate released a series of successful games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro, MSX and Commodore 64 computers from 1983 until 1987. Ultimate are perhaps best remembered for the big-selling titles Jetpac and Sabre Wulf, each of which sold over 300,000 copies in 1983 and 1984 respectively, and their groundbreaking series of isometric arcade adventures using a technique termed Filmation. Knight Lore, the first of the Filmation games, has been retrospectively described in the press as "seminal ... revolutionary" (GamesTM), "one of the most successful and influential games of all time" (X360), and "probably ... the greatest single advance in the history of computer games" (Edge).
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