''Frantic'' is a

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 ...

space

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 ...

published by

Imagine Software Imagine Software was a British video games developer based in Liverpool which existed briefly in the early 1980s, initially producing software for the ZX Spectrum and VIC-20. The company rose quickly to prominence and was noted for its polished, ...

on cassette in 1982. A

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 ...

48K version was planned, but never released.Frantic
World of Spectrum.

Gameplay

The player pilots a space ship while trying to keep an X and Y axis centered on the enemy, which enters the field of play at varying speeds and directions. Slower enemies appear horizontally and quicker enemies diagonally. The game's title alludes to the fact that the game is timed, as fuel levels deplete during play. Centering the X and Y axis to target enemies involves engaging thrusters which in turn burns fuel. The game can be played with either a joystick or keyboard.

References

1982 video games VIC-20 games VIC-20-only games Shoot 'em ups Video games developed in the United Kingdom {{shmup-videogame-stub