''Delta'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter originally released for the

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 ...

Thalamus Ltd The thalamus (from Greek θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter located in the dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of the forebrain). Nerve fibers project out of the thalamus to the cerebral cortex in all directions, ...

in 1987. It was programmed by Stavros Fasoulas and the music was written by

Rob Hubbard Rob Hubbard (born 1955 in Kingston upon Hull, England) is a British composer best known for his musical and programming work for microcomputers of the 1980s, such as the Commodore 64. Early life Hubbard first started playing music at age seve ...

. The menu-music is based on the theme of

Koyaanisqatsi ''Koyaanisqatsi'' (), also known as ''Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance'', is a 1982 American experimental film, experimental non-narrative film directed and produced by Godfrey Reggio with music composed by Philip Glass and cinematography by R ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

and the in-game-music is based on

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

On the Run On the Run may refer to: * "On the run", a phrase often used to describe a fugitive, a person fleeing custody Literature * ''On the Run'' (novel), by Nina Bawden * On the Run (novel series), by Gordon Korman * ''On the Run'', a novel in the S ...

. The game was released as ''Delta Patrol'' in the United States by

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the d ...

for its Amazing Software line of action-oriented software programs, in 1987 on the

. It was also released for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

in 1990 as ''Delta Charge''.

Plot

The

player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

is a member of an elite police squadron called Delta Patrol, commanding a battle cruiser in the Delta Sector of space. The Delta Sector's dangers include lost ships, alien bandits, and unknown forces of destruction, and the character's assignment is to terminate the enemy forces that hide within them. Destroying an entire wave of attacking aliens earns credits that the player may use to buy weapons and ship modifications.

Gameplay

The player controls a spaceship and gains

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...

points by destroying formations of enemies. Some enemy formations instead subtract power-up points for the player, so the player must take note of which formations to destroy. Periodically blocks containing the power-ups (higher speed, faster rate of fire) appear and the player can pick one of them up: The more points the player has collected, the more powerful are the power-ups that can be chosen. Unavailable power-ups are gray and kill the player if he flies into them, making them part of the obstacles in the game. The effects of the power-ups are lost over time and must therefore be regained. The player gets a choice between in-game

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

or in-game

sound effect A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. Traditi ...

s. There is also a

high score In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in the ...

table but no way to save it when the game is turned off.

Reception

Delta Patrol was reviewed in 1987 in ''

Dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

'' #128 by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 4 out of 5 stars. ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

'' stated "the graphics are not especially exciting and the game reminds this reviewer of the old Atari 2600 game, ''

Megamania ''Megamania'' is an Atari 2600 game by Steve Cartwright and published by Activision in 1982. Versions were released for the Atari 5200 and Atari 8-bit family in 1983. ''Megamania'' is similar to Sega's 1981 arcade title ''Astro Blaster''. Both ...

''". ''

Zzap!64 ''Zzap!64'' was a computer games magazine covering games on the Commodore International series of computers, especially the Commodore 64 (C64). It was published in the UK by Newsfield Publications Ltd and later by Europress Impact. The magazine ...

'' saw reviewers

Julian Rignall Julian "Jaz" Rignall (born 6 March 1965, London, England) is a writer and editor. He has also produced content for corporate websites such as GamePro Media, publisher of ''GamePro'' magazine and ''GamePro.com'', marketing collateral and adverti ...

Gary Penn Gary Penn is a former British games reviewer who wrote for Zzap!64 in the 1980s and is a video game industry veteran. He later was editor of The One from 1988 to 1990 and was Creative Director at DMA Design where he supervised the release of the ...

and

Steve Jarratt Steve Jarratt is a long-time videogames journalist and magazine editor. He has launched a large number of magazines for Future Publishing, many of which are still published. Magazines he has worked for include: *''Zzap!64'': Reviewer and assistan ...

divided by the game; none disliking it, but some not thinking it was as good as its predecessor ''

Sanxion ''Sanxion'' is a 1986 scrolling shooter by Thalamus Ltd, developed by Stavros Fasoulas. It was the first game released by Thalamus. Fasoulas also wrote ''Delta'' and '' Quedex''. Gameplay ''Sanxion'' is a horizontally-scrolling shooter. The goa ...

''. The game received a 74% overall rating in the April 1987 issue.

References

External links

*
''Delta Charge''
at World of Spectrum 1987 video games Commodore 64 games Europe-exclusive video games Thalamus Ltd games Video games about police officers Video games scored by Rob Hubbard Video games developed in Finland ZX Spectrum games Multiplayer and single-player video games {{scroll-shooter-videogame-stub