Achieved at : 2024-04-26
Rank : 1
(world record)
Lups : 200
Approved :
Yes
Voting completed : 2024-05-06
| General Rules: |
Play with default settings unless otherwise specified. No use of trainers, cheats, saved game files, auto-fire (when not default present in-game), emulator save states, or other emulator advantages. No use of code modifications that give the player an advantage over other players. 1 player only. No continues. It is discouraged and may lead to voters not accepting your score to - excessively point farm - use glitches or other game exploits |
| Specific Rules: | Play the game in 1 player mode with default settings. |
To vote or comment on this score, please
login.
TGP
Swarm is a 1982 game (it says so on the tape, despite what some websites show) for the BBC Micro. It is a fixed-shooter with shades of Galaxians or Phoenix. It was released by Computer Concepts and written by Malcolm Bateman.
A fairly simple premise, with you shooting a wave of circling birds that fire back. Also on-screen are an egg (the number of these increases on later levels) which darts about at random. After a while, if not shot, the egg will hatch into an eagle which dives down towards you, firing as it goes. Collision with the eagle is fatal and on landing, it leaves behind a mess on the ground which is also fatal to touch and takes several seconds to disappear. If you shoot all the birds in the wave, a fresh wave appears at a higher speed.
The game is quite an early one in the BBC's history, so can be forgiven for lacking some bells and whistles. Graphics can be a touch flickery and collision detection of your shots could be much better, but the game is quick and quite difficult, which could appeal to the shooter fan looking for a challenge. It took me several play sessions to get a score I was happy with, but despite the game's lack of variety and simplicity, I was happy to keep coming back for another go.
This run was made on the 26th April 2024 using the Pantheon emulator on PC. The score reached was 1,330 points. The game has no user-adjustable settings.
Time stamps:
00:30 Loading the game in Pantheon. If you freeze frame immediately after the title card, you can see this is loading in a BBC 32K machine.
00:32 Title screen.
00:34 Game start.
02:32 First life lost.
02:45 First wave cleared.
03:14 Second life lost.
05:47 Third life lost. Game Over! Final score 1,330 points.
05:56 Initials entry and High Score shown.
A fairly simple premise, with you shooting a wave of circling birds that fire back. Also on-screen are an egg (the number of these increases on later levels) which darts about at random. After a while, if not shot, the egg will hatch into an eagle which dives down towards you, firing as it goes. Collision with the eagle is fatal and on landing, it leaves behind a mess on the ground which is also fatal to touch and takes several seconds to disappear. If you shoot all the birds in the wave, a fresh wave appears at a higher speed.
The game is quite an early one in the BBC's history, so can be forgiven for lacking some bells and whistles. Graphics can be a touch flickery and collision detection of your shots could be much better, but the game is quick and quite difficult, which could appeal to the shooter fan looking for a challenge. It took me several play sessions to get a score I was happy with, but despite the game's lack of variety and simplicity, I was happy to keep coming back for another go.
This run was made on the 26th April 2024 using the Pantheon emulator on PC. The score reached was 1,330 points. The game has no user-adjustable settings.
Time stamps:
00:30 Loading the game in Pantheon. If you freeze frame immediately after the title card, you can see this is loading in a BBC 32K machine.
00:32 Title screen.
00:34 Game start.
02:32 First life lost.
02:45 First wave cleared.
03:14 Second life lost.
05:47 Third life lost. Game Over! Final score 1,330 points.
05:56 Initials entry and High Score shown.