''Gridrunner'' is a

fixed shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs) are a Video game genre, subgenre 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 typ ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

written by

Jeff Minter Jeff Minter (born 22 April 1962) is an English video game designer and programmer who often goes by the name Yak. He is the founder of software house Llamasoft and has created dozens of games during his career, which began in 1981 with games ...

and published by Llamasoft for the

VIC-20 The VIC-20 (known as the VC-20 in Germany and the VIC-1001 in Japan) is an 8-bit entry level home computer that was sold by Commodore International, Commodore Business Machines. The VIC-20 was announced in 1980, roughly three years after Commod ...

in 1982. It was ported to the

Atari 8-bit computers The Atari 8-bit computers, formally launched as the Atari Home Computer System, are a series of home computers introduced by Atari, Inc., in 1979 with the Atari 400 and Atari 800. The architecture is designed around the 8-bit MOS Technology 650 ...

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer developed and marketed by Sinclair Research. One of the most influential computers ever made and one of the all-time bestselling British computers, over five million units were sold. ...

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit computing, 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 ...

Commodore PET The Commodore PET is a line of personal computers produced starting in 1977 by Commodore International. A single all-in-one case combines a MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, Commodore BASIC in read-only memory, keyboard, monochrome monitor ...

and Dragon 32. Many remakes and sequels have followed, including versions for the

Atari ST Atari ST is a line of personal computers from Atari Corporation and the successor to the company's Atari 8-bit computers, 8-bit computers. The initial model, the Atari 520ST, had limited release in April–June 1985, and was widely available i ...

Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile operating system, which is based on Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE/Windows Embedded Compact, and that has some of the abilities of modern ...

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Gameplay

The game is similar to the Atari, Inc. arcade game ''

Centipede Centipedes (from Neo-Latin , "hundred", and Latin , "foot") are predatory arthropods belonging to the class Chilopoda (Ancient Greek , ''kheilos'', "lip", and Neo-Latin suffix , "foot", describing the forcipules) of the subphylum Myriapoda, ...

'', with long, segmented enemies that progress in a zig-zag fashion and can be broken apart. Players control a small ship that can fire upwards and move freely around the screen. The player must also avoid pulses emitted by the X-Y zappers which patrol the edges of the grid. The game has twenty waves of enemies to complete.

Development

Llamasoft released ''Gridrunner'' in 1982 for the unexpanded

. The game was written over the course of a single week. Although it draws its inspiration from the arcade game ''

''Cowan, Danny.
Jeff Minter Readies Updated Gridrunner For iOS
''. IndieGames. 22 February 2012. with the concept of a snake-like enemy descending the screen through a series of obstacles (mushrooms in ''Centipede'', pods in ''Gridrunner'') it plays much faster. Versions of the game appeared for several of the

home computer Home computers were a class of microcomputers that entered the market in 1977 and became common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a s ...

s of the early 1980s. The name of the game was inspired by posters advertising the film ''

Blade Runner ''Blade Runner'' is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos, it is an adaptation of Philip K. Di ...

''.

Reception

In April 1983, the game topped the US

computer game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

sales chart. In 1984, ''The Commodore 64 Home Companion'' advised to "forget the plot; fast action is the name of this game".

Legacy

In 1983, Minter released ''Matrix: Gridrunner 2'', which retained much of the original's gameplay, but introduced new enemy types and a scrolling background. It was first published on the

, and ported to other platforms. This title was released in the US as ''Attack of the Mutant Camels'', a title taken from an unrelated Llamasoft title released in the UK. A second sequel, ''Voidrunner'', followed in 1987, which abandons the grid backgrounds, and features more colorful and elaborate graphics. In 1991, Llamasoft released ''Super Gridrunner'' for the Atari ST. The first 32-bit title in the series, it added power-ups to the series for the first time, while retaining the basic elements of a single-screen shooter. This would be the last entry in the series for over a decade, during which time Jeff partnered with Atari on updates to the ''Tempest'' and ''Defender'' series. ''Gridrunner'' was revived in 2002 with '' Gridrunner++'', a

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

downloadable title released on Llamasoft's website. Featuring retro sprite-based visuals and faster-paced gameplay on a scrolling field, it proved popular with fans. A sequel followed in 2009. Originally developed under the working title ''Gridrunner+++'' it was released on Windows PCs as ''

Gridrunner Revolution ''Gridrunner Revolution'' is an action game developed by Llamasoft for Windows. It was released on 25 September 2009. Llamasoft released an updated version with integrated online scoreboards (and also reduced the price) in December of the same y ...

'', after a newly introduced rotation mechanic. This version also made heavy use of Minter's "light synth" tech, with colorful, psychedelic visuals. It is also the only title in the series with a full musical soundtrack.

Later versions

In 2012, Llamasoft released a reimagined version for

, simply titled ''Gridrunner''. This version pared the game back to a style reminiscent of early 1980s arcade games. ''

Eurogamer ''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 alongside parent company Gamer Network. In 2008, it started in the formerly eponymous trade fair EGX (Eurogamer Expo until 2013) organised by its parent company. Fr ...

'' called it "the best shooter on iOS", and ''Touch Arcade'' described it as "a retro remake done right". It was later ported to Android as shareware. In 2018, Llamasoft released ''Minotaur Arcade Vol. 1'' on PC and PS4. This compilation release features a new iteration of ''Gridrunner'' and ''GoatUp'', using 3D voxel-based graphics. Like the iOS version before it, this version is simply titled ''Gridrunner'' and features a retro-arcade aesthetic, but unlike its predecessor, it features changing 3D perspectives, new enemy types, and new power-ups. A reimagined version of the game is included in Digital Eclipse's Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story.

References

External links

* *
''Gridrunner''
for the Commodore PET * *

''Trace'' 1 (April 2017)
Disassembled source code for the C64 and Vic20 versions of ''Gridrunner''
at GitHub {{Jeff Minter 1982 video games Fixed shooters Llamasoft games Atari 8-bit computer games VIC-20 games Commodore 64 games Amiga games IOS games Quicksilva games Video games developed in the United Kingdom Human Engineered Software games