''Encounter'' (also known as ''Encounter!'')The title "Encounter!" was used on the packaging and marketing artwork, as well as on the Atari 32K version

Retrieved on 2014-05-27. is a first person

shoot 'em up Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a 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 certain types of chara ...

game released in 1983 for the Atari 8-bit family and

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 ...

programmed by Paul Woakes for Novagen Software. It was published by Novagen in the UK and Europe and by Synapse in North America. The gameplay is similar to that of

Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry. Based primarily around the Sunny ...

's 1980 arcade game '' Battlezone'', but with large, sometimes screen-filling, scaled bitmaps instead of wireframe models. Versions for the

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers introduced by Commodore in 1985. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16- or 32-bit processors, 256 KB or more of RAM, mouse-based GUIs, and significantly improved graphi ...

and

Atari ST The Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the Atari 8-bit family. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985 and was widely available in July. It was the first pers ...

computers followed much later, in 1991. It was also re-released by

Atlantis Software Atlantis Software was a London-based United Kingdom, UK video game, computer games Software publisher, publisher that published a number of games during the 1980s and early 1990s. The company was set up by Michael Cole and Rodger Coghill in Janu ...

for the Atari 8-bit and Commodore 64 as a cassette budget title.

Gameplay

''Encounter'' contains eight environments with three difficulty levels and includes 3-D graphics and sound effects to indicate the approach of enemy

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...

aliens.Novagen Software not founded yet, he was looking for a publisher. In 1983, he called Bruce Jordan who was owner of the Birmingham Atari Centre and asked him he would be interested in helping him publish ''Encounter''. Bruce Jordan agreed and Novagen Software was formed (initially as Paul Woakes's own company and Bruce Jordan's company was engaged on a 'percentage' for publication, sales and distribution on Novagen's behalf). ''Encounter'' was released early 1984, and it did sell well, with the Atari version charted higher and longer than the Commodore 64 version, although C64 did extremely well in Germany.

Reception

Your Commodore ''Your Commodore'' was a magazine for Commodore computers, including the Commodore 64, Amiga, and the Commodore PC range. It was published in the UK from October 1984 until late 1989 when the name was shortened to ''YC''. The final issue was i ...

'' gave the game four out of five stars praising the game's level of difficulty and available environments along with appreciating the sound effects which indicate when difficult enemies are going to attack. In 1991, the game was converted to the Amiga. However, the gameplay was outdated, and Amiga Joker gave it a mediocre score of 57%, stating that it was good enough for a short play from time to time. In a retrospective review in Retro Gamer the game was praised as a "technical marvel" which runs at an impressive speed and presents a realistic environment.

References

External links

* *{{Internet Archive game, id=a8b_Encounter_1983_Synapse_Software_US_req_OSb_k_file 1983 video games Amiga games Atari 8-bit family games Atari ST games Commodore 64 games First-person shooters Novagen Software games Synapse Software games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Atlantis Software games