''Light Force'' is a 1986

vertically scrolling shooter A vertically scrolling video game or vertical scroller is a video game in which the player views the field of play principally from a top-down perspective, while the background scrolls from the top of the screen to the bottom (or, less often, from ...

Gargoyle Games Gargoyle Games was a British software company founded in 1983 by Roy Carter and Greg Follis in order to publish their first game, ''Ad Astra''. They generally specialized in games for the ZX Spectrum even though the company was originally named wi ...

, and published under their

Faster Than Light Faster-than-light (also FTL, superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero ...

imprint. It was released for the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Si ...

, Commodore 64, and

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 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 the ''ZX81 Colou ...

platforms. The player controls a spaceship which must defeat waves of attacking enemies in five different levels. ''Light Force'' received positive reviews from video games critics, later being ranked as one of the best games for the Spectrum by multiple gaming magazines. The game was a commercial success, with the Spectrum version debuting at number two in the UK sales charts.

Gameplay

''Light Force'' is a

. The player controls a "Light Force" flightcraft in the

Regulus Regulus is the brightest object in the constellation Leo and one of the brightest stars in the night sky. It has the Bayer designation designated α Leonis, which is Latinized to Alpha Leonis, and abbreviated Alpha Leo or α Leo. Reg ...

system, tasked as the only fighter in the area to fight off a species of aliens taking over the peaceful system. The game spans five levels, ranging from a jungle section, an

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, c ...

, an ice planet, desert planet, and ends at the aliens' factories. Every level has the player tasked with shooting down multiple waves of enemy spaceships to progress to the next level. Weapon upgrades and a shield for your ship can be acquired as you progress. After completing the last level, the game loops back to the first. The game has 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 th ...

feature, where the player can get point bonuses for completing optional objectives, like destroying all alien buildings.

Development

''Light Force'' is the first game published under

label. The company's co-founder Greg Follis explained that Faster Than Light was originally the title of the game, but he considered it "too good to waste". The game was the first to use "Lasermation" for the graphics, which was described by Gargoyle director Ted Heathcote as "a new technique for showing really vivid high speed animation".

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 ...

was the composer for the Commodore 64 version. It was released in 1986 for the

, Commodore 64, and

computers.

Reception

According to

MicroScope A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisi ...

, the ZX Spectrum version of ''Light Force'' debuted at number two in the UK sales charts, behind ''Paperboy''. It dropped down to number three the following week. All three versions of the game received positive reviews from video game critics. Graham Taylor for ''

Sinclair User ''Sinclair User'' was a magazine dedicated to the Sinclair Research range of home computers, most specifically the ZX Spectrum (while also occasionally covering arcade games). Initially published by ECC Publications, and later EMAP, it was pub ...

'' called it, "The ultimate blaster, ''Light Force'' is mindless destruction at its very best. An essential purchase." One reviewer for ''

Amtix ''Amtix'' (stylized as ''AMTIX!'') is a magazine that originally reviewed Amstrad computer software in the mid-1980s, published monthly by Newsfield Publications Ltd. Unlike ''Zzap!64'' and ''CRASH'' (its more successful sister publications from ...

'' considered it to be one of the best shoot 'em ups for the Amstrad. ''Crash'' praised its graphics, calling it the best he has seen on a Spectrum shoot 'em up. Computer and Video Games Tim Metcalfe positively compared it to ''

Galaxian is a 1979 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. The player assumes control of the Galaxip starfighter in its mission to protect Earth from waves of aliens. Gameplay involves destroying each formation of aliens, wh ...

''. ''

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 ...

'' said it was "a must for shoot 'em up addicts." The game won the award for best graphics of the year according to the readers of ''Crash'', and was nominated in the "Best Shoot 'em up" and "State of the Art award" categories. In 1991, ''Crash'' placed it 82nd in their list of the top 100 games for the Spectrum. The Spectrum version was rated number 26 in the ''

Your Sinclair ''Your Sinclair'', or ''YS'' as it was commonly abbreviated, was a commercially published and printed British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum. It was in circulation between 1984 and 1993. History T ...

'' "Official Top 100 Games of All Time" list.

References

External links

* * *{{lemon64 game, name=Light Force, id=1522 1986 video games Amstrad CPC games Commodore 64 games Gargoyle Games games Shoot 'em ups Single-player video games Vertically scrolling shooters Video games developed in the United Kingdom Video games scored by Rob Hubbard ZX Spectrum games