Stargunner is a fast paced, side scrolling space shooter that was designed for a single player by Apogee Software. Apogee also published this middle nineties title and offered it exclusively for play on the personal computer, running either the Windows or MS-DOS operating systems. It was Apogee’s final offering to the world of computer gaming before closing its doors for good. In recent years, it has been released as a freeware title.
Aside from this distinction, Stargunner was also one of the first scrolling shooters to use pre-rendered three-dimensional graphics.
Stargunner is a fast paced, side scrolling space shooter that was designed for a single player by Apogee Software. Apogee also published this middle nineties title and offered it exclusively for play on the personal computer, running either the Windows or MS-DOS operating systems. It was Apogee’s final offering to the world of computer gaming before closing its doors for good. In recent years, it has been released as a freeware title.
Aside from this distinction, Stargunner was also one of the first scrolling shooters to use pre-rendered three-dimensional graphics. This unique concept in the day made it one of the most beautiful shooters, graphically speaking. Combined with the cool futuristic theme, these graphics helped to make Stargunner very popular.
Stargunner has two different plots, that
basically wind up with the same overall result. The first sees the Stargunners as an elite force of space fighters that were designed to help the peaceful people of Amdara repel the invading Barakians, who tricked the peace lovers with a friendly guise, only to reveal themselves as bloodthirsty conquerors. The Stargunners were created to kill the three Barakian bases that housed the majority of the space fleet. This is the story that the user will see in the manual files. The story that plays out within the game, however, is slightly different. This plot sees a group of greedy and restless people, the Zilions, eyeing up a rich neighboring planet, Ytima. Like the first plot line, the Stargunners are created to quell this invasion by destroying the three strongholds before the Zilions could attack Ytima.
The game play follows that of a standard right scrolling game. However, the enemies are not limited by the scroll. They can come in from the left, right and from both below and above. They can come as single fighter planes, or as huge formations. Users who play Stargunner often will soon recognize the pattern of the enemies and can prepare to some extent, but the quantity is so massive, that knowing what is coming does little to help.
The user will also pick up pretty standard power-ups, including money, that can be used to purchase upgrades. Other power-ups include shields, extra lives, weapons upgrades, and smart bombs.
Stargunner is a very playable, decent scrolling shooter. It is easy to learn, and features some very fast-paced, addictive game play. It is a serious and difficult game, and will certainly challenge even the most experienced shooter gamer.
