City bomber

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City bomber
Studio United KingdomUnited Kingdom Llamasoft
Publisher United KingdomUnited Kingdom Llamasoft
Senior Developer United KingdomUnited Kingdom Jeff Minter
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1982
platform ZX Spectrum
genre Shoot 'em up
Game mode Single player
control keyboard

City Bomber is an early computer game for home computers , which were developed around the 1,982th It is a horizontal 2D shoot 'em up . There are numerous versions and ports for many different platforms.

origin

The origin is the arcade game Canyon Bomber by Atari (1977). However, this is black and white and has a slightly different graphic. The home computer versions of the VC 20 and ZX Spectrum are more known .

Game description

The player has to drop bombs over a city (skyline). At the bottom of the screen there are several high-rise buildings of different heights (often colored blocks). The player owns a biplane that flies horizontally, mostly from left to right, but which he cannot control. The aim is to drop bombs to destroy the houses. Only one bomb can be dropped at a time, taking into account the height of the buildings and the airspeed.

When the aircraft has reached the right edge of the screen, it comes out a little lower on the left side. Houses hit are not completely destroyed, just a little bit shorter. A collision with these should be avoided as long as possible. A new bomb cannot be dropped until the previously dropped bomb has reached a house or the ground, so precise timing should be used.

programming

The programming was quite simple and could be written or modified in BASIC even with moderate programming knowledge . In the past, program listings were often typed from magazines. But there were also finished versions on cassettes or cartridges . The program size is very small as the game is quite simple. In the ZX81 version it is only about 1 KByte in size. The main place in other versions is the (very simple) graphics. Sprites weren't necessary.

Versions

Screenshot of Toxic Ravine (1989) for the Mac OS, inspired by Canyon Bomber

(Selection)

  • Canyon Bomber (1978) for Atari 2600 (colored machine implementation), programmer David Crane
  • Blitz for Sinclair ZX81 (Orwin Software)
  • Air Attack for ZX81 and PET 2001 (1979, by Supersoft)
  • City Bomber / Blitz for VC 20 (1982, by Creative, on cassette)
  • City Bomber (Stephan Smith) for ZX Spectrum (1982)
  • City Bomber (programmer Jeff Minter , Llamasoft ) for ZX-Spectrum, (1982)
  • City Bomber for Commodore 64 (1983)
  • Super Blitz for Commodore 64 (1983)
  • City Lander for Commodore Plus4 (1983)
  • Bomber for VC 20 (1983)
  • Nuclear City Bomber (or B1 Attack) for ZX-Spectrum (1984)
  • Demolition Mission for Amiga from Assassins (1992, PD)
  • Lunar Blitz for Commodore Plus4 by Cosine & Cronosoft (2005)

There is also an arcade game of the same name by Konami (1987).

Similar games

A similar game is Scramble . In the game, however, the spaceship can be controlled correctly, and also shot forward. There is also screen scrolling . City Bomber is more of a game of skill.

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