''Hunter's Moon'' is a shoot 'em up programmed by Martin Walker 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 ...

and published by Thalamus in 1987. The music was composed by Matt Gray.

Summary

Despite the game being a single ~64kb binary, the game world is large: there are 128 levels divided to 32 star systems. It is an example of procedural content generation in early computer games. Each level takes place in a void with two dimensional cities appearing as they are being built by "worker cells". The worker cells are indestructible but the bricks dropped by them can be temporarily destroyed using the ship's weapon. The goal of the game is to collect enough star cells contained inside the cities to get to the next level. By collecting enough star cells within a strict time limit (displayed in the lower score table) it is possible to skip the remaining levels in current star system and pass on to the next, allowing skilled players to advance the game quicker. According to the game's creator Martin Walker, ''Hunter's Moon'' was inspired by the children's toy Spirograph.

Reception

''Hunter's Moon'' received a score of 92% in computer games magazine '' Zzap!64'', earning its ''Sizzler'' accolade for games rated 90-95% overall. The magazine also went on to chronicle the production of Martin Walker's next game, ''Citadel'', in a diary column named ''Walker's Way''.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite web, title=The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers, url=https://dadgum.com/giantlist/ , last1=Hague , first1=James

External links

Interview with the creator
1987 video games Commodore 64 games Commodore 64-only games Shoot 'em ups Video games developed in the United Kingdom