Strikeforce

Midway's dazzling "Defender for the 90s" took the side-scrolling shooter to new heights. More than a simple rescue-the-colonists affair, it's a tactical and strategic feast -- what "Starcraft" would have been if it were a horizontal game. An alien dinosaur race (with tons of grouchy personality) must be scoured from over a dozen planets. When not piloting starcraft or operating factories, the dinosaurs chase after you hurling anti-aircraft fire and lobbing bolders. Complimenting the wide range of weapons and upgrades is a neat feature: tiny spacemen who dangle from your ship, providing cover for you. You don't just blast away, but set mines, release homing missiles, and lay down rivers of burning napalm, taking out aerial as well as ground targets. If the colonists aren't rescued, the dinosaurs grab, shake and mutate them into more dinos... All this against parallax backgrounds ranging from volcanic and frozen to lush jungle planets in a style reminiscent of Bakshi and Mobius. A major achievement; written in 1991, it easily holds up to 1999 standards.

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software: Emulated on MAME,

hardware: Williams/Midway Y/Z-unit system,

display: raster