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Beamrider

1983 video game

Summary

1983 video game

Field	Value
title	Beamrider
image	Beamrider cover art (Intellivison).jpg
caption	Intellivision cover art
developer	Action Graphics
publisher	Activision
designer	David Rolfe
platforms	Intellivision, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Atari 2600, Atari 8-bit, Atari 5200, ZX Spectrum, MSX
released	{{Collapsible list	title=September 1983	Intellivision ColecoVisionC64 2600 Atari 8-bit, 5200 ZX Spectrum
genre	Fixed shooter
modes	Single-player

Beamrider is a fixed shooter video game written for the Intellivision by David Rolfe and published by Activision in 1983. The game was ported to the Atari 2600 (with a slightly reduced feature set), Atari 5200, Atari 8-bit computers, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, and MSX.

Gameplay

Beamrider takes place above Earth's atmosphere, where a large alien shield called the Restrictor Shield surrounds the Earth. The player's objective is to clear the Shield's 99 sectors of alien craft while piloting the Beamrider ship. The Beamrider is equipped with a short-range laser lariat and a limited supply of torpedoes. The player is given three at the start of each sector.

To clear a sector, fifteen enemy ships must be destroyed. A "Sentinel ship" will then appear, which can be destroyed using a torpedo (if any remain) for bonus points. Some enemy ships can only be destroyed with torpedoes, and some must simply be dodged. Occasionally during a sector, "Yellow Rejuvenators" (extra lives) appear. They can be picked up for an extra ship, but if they are shot they will transform into ship-damaging debris.

Activision offered a Beamrider patch to players who could get to Sector 14 with 40,000 points and sent in a screenshot of their accomplishment.

Reception

The Deseret News in 1984 gave the ColecoVision version of Beamrider three stars, describing it as "basically a slide-and-shoot space game."

A reviewer for Your Commodore described the Commodore 64 version of the game as "a really good, wholesome arcade zapping game."

Notes

References

(October 1983). "Availability Update". [[Computer Entertainer.
(April 1984). "Availability Update". [[Computer Entertainer]].
(June 1984). "Availability Update". [[Computer Entertainer]].
(2020). "Atari VCS game release dates".
Holyoak, Craig. (1984-05-30). "Here are ColecoVision's jewels". Deseret News.
(November 1984). "Your Commodore Magazine Issue 02".
"The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers".
(1983). "Beamrider Atari 2600 manual". Activision.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1983-video-games fixed-shooters atari-2600-games atari-5200-games atari-8-bit-computer-games colecovision-games commodore-64-games intellivision-games msx-games zx-spectrum-games activision-games video-games-developed-in-the-united-states single-player-video-games

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