Laser Zone

Laser Zone
Game No.	298
Voting	6.21 points, 14 votes
Developer	Jeff Minter
Company	Llamasoft
Release	1983
Platform	C64
Genre	Shoot'em Up
Gamemode	Single player 2 players (in turns) 2 players (simultaneous)
Operation
Media
Language

Description

The Empire of Irata and the Realm of Zzyzax have allied and attack the outposts of Terra with skull, bug and other ships. To defend the attacks, laser zones were erected, in which you find stations that consist of two computer-controlled plasma beams. Now you could say: "Great, let the computers destroy our enemies, the Earth is safe.". But the lasers need to be maintained and exactly for this purpose you are in station 106-A. During the maintenance the control computer breaks (these things always do that in the most unfitting moments) and as coincidence would have it a short time later hordes of Iratian and Zzyzaxanian spaceships materialise. Now you have to take over the controls manually to defend this attack. This is obviously not your day....

Design

... an image from the game

The game "Laser Zone" by Jeff Minter without camels or other humped animals?? No, it isn't because in the front credits they already fall over the screen. To the game itself: The graphics are simple but pleasant, as in all of his games, same is for the sound and the FX. The game idea is also not revolutionary, but the execution is very good. The best are the filed 2-player options (team, against each other), these makes the game stand out from the crowd of other shooters.

Hints

Controls

in the title screen

F1   = Solo/Competitive - In the competitive mode 2 players or 2 teams can play against each other in turns or together at the same time.
F3   = Individual/Team- In the Individual mode each player steers both plasma beams, in the team mode one player controls the horizontal plasma beam and the other player the vertical plasma beam.
F5   = Level - There are 20 levels, the first 9 can be chosen by pressing the key F5.
F7   = Joysticks 1/2 - You need 2 joysticks for the competitive mode.

SHIFT   + P   = pause on, leave pause mode by pressing the fire button
T   = training mode, leave it with SHIFT   + P 

in the game

/ = move vertical laser station
/ = move horiontal laser station
= fire both laser beams (double shot)

• If a laser station leaves the screen on one side, it will reappear on the opposite side.

Diagonal shot

To fire diagonally, you have to keep the fire button pressed and then pull the joystick forwards/right or backwards/left . Caution! With this shot you can also destroy your own laser or the one of your teammate.

Electric shots

You can use a limited amount of this very effective weapon. It destroys all enemies that are on the screen. For this press the key C= .

The Iratian Death Satellite

It can appear after the first attack wave. It moves on random paths and fires energy bolts onto both plasma stations. Additionally it is protected by a deflector shield. This can be destabilized by permanent fire, you can see the decreasing effect by the shield's colour.

Attack waves

They follow a certain pattern. Watch the "THRESHOLD" display. When this goes down to zero, an attack wave ends. At the end of each wave you get bonus points and if you have less than 3 energy bolts, you get an additional bolt. The attack wave pattern:

• 1-2 skull and bug ships
• 3-4 humanoid and rabbit ships
• 5-6 cosmo cat and spider ships
• 7-8 manic mice and virus ships

Points

• All types of attacking spaceships - 100 to 800 points
• Iratian Death Satellite - 1000 points
• Destroyed attack wave - bonus points and one electric bolt

Solution

Tips:

• The diagonal shot is very helpful against hostile ships that have landed on the basis, but the probability to destroy the own second laser or shooting away your teammates laser is very high, which will hardly make your teammate give you a friendly backslapping. So be cautios, a black eye needs care for a long time....

Cheats

• The version by "Crypt" has next to different trainers (unlimited ships, unlimited electric bolts) also a saveable highscore list.

Voting

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
6.21 points at 14 votes (rank 743). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	6	5th August 2008 - "good" - 400 downs
Lemon64	7,1	5th August 2008 - 19 votes

Reviews

H.T.W: "Again a very indiviual, again a bit overvalued game by camel-lover Minter. As all his games, this also has its own flair and is well playable. But what tops it all is the team mode where each player steers one laser and where the word "cooperative" gets significance. Very recommendable...".

Robotron2084: "An ingeniously simple idea, which unfortunately gets compromised by the symptomatic sloppy collision query caused by the early stage of Jeff Minter's producing. Here simply too many shots go through the enemies, which goes too far. And that the UFO in the higher levels gives you exactly 2 nano seconds to move out of the line of fire is also not gentleman-like. And the originally well-intentioned possibility to shoot diagonally to clear the opposing axis often ends in the heat of the battle with unwanted shooting of the own gun. But otherwise Laser Zone is quite viable, especially in twos. 5 out of 10 points."

Miscellaneous

• Jeff Minter's personal highscore was 101.000 points at the printing date of the manual.

Cover

"Cover"

Highscore

1. Mindless - 106.020 - Zone 15 (28.03.2019)
2. Robotron2084 - 89.684 (07.08.2008)
3. FXXS - 14.844 (25.10.2013)
4. TheRyk - 11.544 (21.06.2014)

	#2 Robotron2084		#3 FXXS

• 

  #4 TheRyk

Links

• C64Games.de - Game No. 4632
• Lemon64 - Game No. 1481
• Gamebase64.com - Game No. 4272
• C64.com - Game No. 1864
• ready64 - Game No. 4193
• CSDb
• The SixtyFour Originals DataBase - Game No. 1404
• Laser Zone at MobyGames

Videos

• Video at Archive.org
• Video at YouTube