Galaforce
Galaforce is a fixed shooter video game for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron, written by Kevin Edwards and published by Superior Software in 1986. It spawned a sequel, Galaforce 2, and later, Galaforce Worlds.
Gameplay
The game is set in the 25th century, in the fictional Magellanic galaxy. The player takes the role of a pilot of the Galaforce, an elite unit of the United Cosmological Federation, on a mission to conquer and overthrow hordes of "savage" aliens.Galaforce is inspired by arcade fixed shooter games, particularly the Galaga series, but is not a specific clone. The player controls a spaceship that can move horizontally and vertically in the bottom part of the screen. The ship comes under attack from successive formations of aliens. The object of the game is to survive while scoring as highly as possible. Unlike many similar games, not all aliens need to be destroyed. Most of the formations involve aliens entering from one side of the screen, moving quickly across the screen in a set pattern, then leaving the screen or disintegrating at the edge. This most resembles a "Challenging Stage" in Galaga as unlike the standard Galaga stages, the aliens do not settle into a Galaxian style swarm.
There are thirteen different aliens, requiring between one and ten hits to be destroyed, and a large number of different formations. The game is broken up into zones that include a series of formations. The aliens in Zone 1 do not fire at the player and never fly into the bottom area of the screen so as long as the player does not move upwards, it is not possible to be killed. The zones get progressively more difficult, with aliens entering or leaving the screen at the bottom, firing at the player and firing homing bombs. Some formations are known as multiplier formations where a small number of one type of alien keep spawning other aliens until the originals are destroyed.