''Project-X'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter 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 ...

released in 1992. It was developed and published by Team17. The game resembles

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

's side-scrolling shooter games such as '' Gradius'', ''

Salamander Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by their lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults. All ten ...

'' and '' Parodius''. It was ported to

MS-DOS MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few ope ...

Plot

Taking place many years in the future in colonized space, military scientists have disposed of countless, defective military droids on an un-colonized terrestrial planet called Ryxx. The droids eventually become sentient and, by way of revenge, start an attack against mankind, using a station to continually create more war machines. It is the player's mission to undergo Project X and eliminate the droid forces.

Gameplay

Players control a spacecraft of their choice, battling hundreds of alien ships. Various

power-up In video games, a power-up is an object that adds temporary benefits or extra abilities to the player character as a game mechanic. This is in contrast to an item, which may or may not have a permanent benefit that can be used at any time chosen ...

s, numerous in the first level but increasingly rare afterwards, permit an exponential increase of the spacecraft's seven different weapons (Guns, Buildup, Side Shots, Homing Missiles, Plasma, Magma, and Laserbeam). The game is composed of five levels. Many players never completed the second one (which had a very difficult ending), and most of the rest never went past level three. When Team17 realized this, they released ''Project-X SE'' on Amiga CD32, a special edition with the difficulty toned down. It was released as a budget game. A hack for the original game to enable the player to skip levels by holding down the fire button and pressing the escape key was also distributed on the coverdisks of several Amiga magazines.

Reception

According to ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'', ''Project-X'' was immensely successful in Europe, but only sold in moderate numbers in the U.S. ''Amiga Computing'' called it one of the best shooter games for that platform at the time, both for its technical excellence in graphics and sounds, and for its difficult and interesting gameplay.

Legacy

The game was followed by a

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

-only sequel, titled '' X2''. The game was parodied in one level of Team17's own ''

Superfrog ''Superfrog'' is a scrolling 2D platform game, originally developed for the Amiga and published in 1993 by Team17.

'', as ''Project-F'' (with the 'F' presumably standing for "Frog"), even going as far as using a remixed version of the original game's theme tune.

References

{{Team17 1992 video games Amiga games Amiga CD32 games DOS games Horizontally scrolling shooters Team17 games Video games scored by Allister Brimble Video games developed in the United Kingdom Multiplayer and single-player video games Science fiction video games