The intergalactic treaty of 2345 has been broken by a race known as the G'ohrn. You are on patrol in the Gamma Sector of the Dyni'bian Cluster when you receive a distress call from Earth outpost #4. Your mission is to defend the remote Earth outpost.
In Space Battle, you must defend a remote Earth outpost from attacking invaders! But it's not as easy as it sounds--before you can even face the enemy onslaught, you must first land your ship on the outpost's defense platform while evading an enemy sentry! Once on the platform, you will then face the first wave of enemy fighters. Can you destroy them before depleting your fuel supply? To keep your fuel from running low, be sure to pick up the fuel pods released by exploding enemy vessels!
After you destroy the first wave, you'll then be faced with two morphing Kh'rylian Destroyers, and not only do they not drop fuel pods but they require several shots to destroy! And should you survive their fury, you won't have time for a break, as the enemies will send wave after wave of invaders to test your mettle!
Game Variations:
- Standard Play
- Steerable Laser Fire
- No Shields
- Disappearing Enemies
Includes cartridge and full-color manual.
Author | Dave Neuman |
Number of Players | 1 |
Controller | Joystick |
Cartridge Size | 4K |
Label Design | Nathan Strum and Dave Dries |
Manual Design | Nathan Strum and Dave Dries |
SB is a shoot 'em up like many VCS games but it has enough new features to make it a unique challenge. The first screen requires you to land your ship while avoiding a baddie trying to smash into you. This is pretty easy at first but on later levels it gets more interesting. After landing, you enter a level and SB becomes a shooter with a couple of twists. The bad guys are at the top of the screen and move in patterns that change regularly which makes hitting them a little harder. This is also where the first twist comes in. Shooting a bad guy makes the other bad guys in that row turn into shields so you'll need to shoot around them to hit a different row. This makes the shield change to the new row and so on. The second twist is that your fuel supply rapidly depletes so you need to catch fuel that is dropped from the bad guy ships. This is harder than it sounds because it only changes into fuel when it's pretty low on the screen and close to you. You're have to always be ready to move out of the way if it stays a shot or scoot under it if it changes to fuel. After clearing this section you battle a pair of 'boss' ships that require multiple hits. There's no way to replenish your fuel on this screen so you need to make short work of the boss.
The graphics in SB are decent, Some of the ships are a little too dark against the dark background particularly the bad guy that tries to stop you from landing. Sound is good too although the low fuel alarm is irritatingly pierce. It's not the best looking/sounding game veer but it's not bad by any means. Controls are good with options for steerable missiles a plus.
If you like shooters, this is a nice addition. It's much more interesting than the endless parade of Space Invaders rehash homebrews the VCS seems to have.
The graphics and sound are well done, although not as glitzy as some other homebrews. There are a few rough edges, and the game could have used a little more polishing here and there, like better gravity simulation during the landing stage and some other minor things. That said, Space Battle is a solid shooter, with enough unique elements to set it apart from the crowd, and most importantly - it's fun to play. It reminds me of some of the better, early 3rd-party games for the 2600. Space Battle re-captures some of the raw energy of those titles, but definitely in a good way. Well worth having for fans of shoot 'em ups.