''Bandits'' is a 1982

fixed shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a Video game genre, sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certai ...

written by Tony and Benny Ngo for the

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

and published by

Sirius Software Sirius Software was a video game publisher of Apple II, Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, and VIC-20 games in the early 1980s. Sirius also developed games for the Atari 2600 which were published by 20th Century Fox Video Games. History The com ...

. The game is a clone of

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...

's 1980 ''

Stratovox ''Stratovox'', known in Japan as ''Speak & Rescue'' (スピーク&レスキュー), is a 1980 Arcade game, arcade fixed shooter developed and published in Japan by Sunsoft, Sun Electronics and released in North America by Taito. It is the first ...

'' arcade video game where the goal is to prevent aliens from stealing objects. ''Bandits'' was ported to the

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

, and

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit home computer that was sold by Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commodore's first personal computer, the PE ...

Gameplay

Supplies stored on the

moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

–represented as fruit–are coveted by

alien Alien primarily refers to: * Alien (law), a person in a country who is not a national of that country ** Enemy alien, the above in times of war * Extraterrestrial life, life which does not originate from Earth ** Specifically, intelligent extrater ...

invaders. Various types of those bandits enter, via a mothership, in waves. The player's job is to shoot them using the spaceship at the bottom of the screen. If an invader reached the bottom right part of the screen, it steals an item. The player can activate a shield which makes the spaceship invulnerable for a limited time. There are 28 levels.

Reception

David H. Ahl David H. Ahl (born May 17, 1939) is an American author who is the founder of ''Creative Computing (magazine), Creative Computing'' magazine. He is also the author of many how-to books, including ''BASIC Computer Games'', the first computer book t ...

found the game to be "sensational" and "great fun." He liked the wide range of alien types, but found the best control scheme to be the one the fewest people were likely to use: an

Atari CX40 joystick The Atari CX40 joystick was the first widely used cross-platform game controller. The original CX10 was released with the Atari Video Computer System (later renamed the Atari 2600) in 1977 and became the primary input device for most games on the ...

connected through a Sirius Joyport. This option allows pushing forward on the stick to activate shields; it isn't available with an Apple joystick. Dawn Gordon, reviewing the Atari 8-bit version for ''

Electronic Games An electronic game is a game that uses electronics to create an interactive system with which a player can play. Video games are the most common form today, and for this reason the two terms are often used interchangeably. There are other common ...

'', wrote: "''Bandits'' has a very annoying flaw. The time lapse from when the disk is booted to when play actually begins is three minutes and seven seconds! As each level is completed throughout the game, the computer pauses to load additional information, and the process can take up to 12 seconds."

References

External links

*{{lemon64 game, id=210
C64 gameplay video''Addison Wesley Book of Atari Software 1984''''1984 Software Encyclopedia''
from ''

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in '' Softline''
Review
in ''

Softalk ''Softalk'' () was an American magazine of the early 1980s that focused on the Apple II computer. Published from September 1980 through August 1984, it featured articles about hardware and software associated with the Apple II platform and the peo ...

''
Review
in ''

Ahoy! ''Ahoy!'' was a computer magazine published between January 1984 and January 1989 in the US, focusing on all Commodore color computers, but especially the Commodore 64 and Amiga. History The first issue of ''Ahoy!'' was published in January 198 ...

''
Review
in ''

Electronic Fun with Computers & Games ''Electronic Fun with Computers & Games'' was a video game magazine published in the United States from November 1982 to May 1984. For the last two issues it was renamed ''ComputerFun''. Content The magazine was split up into the following sect ...

'' 1982 video games Apple II games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games Fixed shooters Single-player video games Sirius Software games VIC-20 games Video game clones Video games developed in the United States Video games set in outer space

Gameplay

Reception

See also

References

External links