''Panther'' is a

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 ...

game designed and implemented by Peter Adams and published by Mastertronic in 1986. An

Atari 8-bit family The Atari 8-bit family is a series of 8-bit home computers introduced by Atari, Inc. in 1979 as the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The series was successively upgraded to Atari 1200XL , Atari 600XL, Atari 800XL, Atari 65XE, Atari 130XE, Atari 800XE, ...

version followed in 1987, then a ZX Spectrum port in 1989. The player pilots a strange-looking aircraft, fighting off hordes of invading flying saucers and rescuing people by landing the craft and waiting for them to board. The game uses a diagonally scrolling isometric view, much like '' Zaxxon'' and ''

Blue Max Blue Max is an informal name of ''Pour le Mérite'', a German military decoration from 1740 until the end of World War I. Blue Max may also refer to: * Blue Max (video game), ''Blue Max'' (video game) (1983) and its sequel ''Blue Max 2001'' * Blue ...

'', using shadows to show the height of flying objects. Adams previously worked ports of both of those games. The Commodore 64 disk packaged ''Panther'' with '' L.A. SWAT'', another Mastertronic game. The A-side of the disk contained the two programs for the C64/128, while the B-side contained Atari 8-bit family versions.

Gameplay

In ''Panther'' the player needs to pilot their craft across the landscape, shoot up the invaders and rescue survivors. To do this, the player has to land close to the bunkers as they appear on the screen and stay there until all the refugees reach the player's ship. At the end of each run, a capsule awaits to take refugees to safety. The aliens attack in waves, and the player's onboard computer indicates at the bottom of the screen the position of incoming units relative to the player's ship, as well as the number of shields remaining. The goal of the game is to achieve the highest possible score by rescuing as many people as possible.

Reception

''Panther'' received mostly positive reviews. Ruth James writing for Atari User enjoyed the game despite minor faults and concluded: "you must buy this game for your collection, it's well worth it". Zzap!64 review was also positive, with reviewers stating that the game provides several hours of entertainment as the player tries to collect and deliver all the survivors. Commodore User review was similar in tone and gave the game an overall rating of 7/10.

References

External links

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''Panther''
at Atari Mania 1986 video games Alien invasions in video games Atari 8-bit family games Commodore 64 games ZX Spectrum games Video games scored by David Whittaker Video games set on fictional planets Video games developed in the United States Video games with isometric graphics Mastertronic games {{scroll-shooter-videogame-stub