| Swoop | |
|---|---|
 Acorn Electron cassette cover | |
| Publisher(s) | Micro Power |
| Programmer(s) | David Elliot [1] |
| Platform(s) | BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, Commodore 64 |
| Release | 1983: BBC, Electron 1984: C64 |
| Genre(s) | Fixed shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Swoop is a clone of Namco's Galaxian programmed by David Elliot for the BBC Micro and published in the UK by Micro Power. It was ported to the Acorn Electron the game's launch in 1983 and the Commodore 64 in 1984. [1]
The invading aliens take the form of wing-flapping Birdmen. Swoop differs from other Galaxian clones in that the Birdmen will lay explosive eggs if they successfully reach the bottom of the screen. If the eggs are touched by the player's laser base then a life is lost, so they effectively confine the movement of the laser base until they disappear after some pre-set time.
There are a total of eight levels (called "phases" in the cassette inlay instructions), each successively more difficult than the last. The most difficult level has a total of two Birdmen and eight missiles raining down on the player simultaneously.
Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, it also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and utility packages – these included word processor VIEW and the spreadsheet ViewSheet supplied on ROM and cartridge for the BBC Micro/Acorn Electron and included as standard in the BBC Master and Acorn Business Computer.
Gorf is an arcade video game released in 1981 by Midway Manufacturing, whose name was advertised as an acronym for "Galactic Orbiting Robot Force". It is a fixed shooter with five distinct levels, the first of which is based on Space Invaders and another on Galaxian. The game makes heavy use of synthesized speech for the Gorfian robot which taunts the player, powered by the Votrax speech chip. Gorf allows the player to buy two additional lives per quarter before starting the game, for a maximum of seven lives.
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