When I was a kid, I used to play Thexder on my dad’s Tandy computer. I must have been about twelve years old at the time. I still hear the songs from this game, years later. I recognized the rift from Moonlight Sonata long before I knew its name or author. In the game you are a little robot man that changes into a plane. You run through levels shooting at anything in your way. You must be careful not to let the ‘monsters’ touch you or they will suck your health / energy.
The bad guys would hide around corners and you would have to switch between the man or the plane in order to shoot them. Energy fields would pose barriers to you that you had to shoot. Shooting some bad guys would give you health back. The landscape itself was a maze that you must navigate, going up or down, left or right.
This was a very hard game for me. I actually never made it past the second level. The few times I actually got to the second or even third level, I would get so excited. I would usually just play the first level over and over. I seem to remember a secret at the end of
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the first level too, if you shot at the wall you could find extra health or something. I would love to play it again and see if I can get past the second level now. I remember the graphics looked pretty good and the sound was great. It was a great experience to play. Even though I was always getting killed, I just wanted to play it again and again. I recently looked up the game on youtube just to show my kids what it was and that it had Moonlight Sonata in it. The video I watched shows the songs stopping each time you shoot. I do not remember it sounding like that when I was a kid. I thought the sound was pretty seamless. I do remember the stupid little creatures always chasing me though. I would go back in forth in the narrow spots just to avoid touching them. You also had a shield but I don’t remember that every lasting very long for me.
I recommend this game to anyone who likes the old games and can handle the graphics and music which aren't really up to today's standards.
