| Gridrunner++ | |
| Developer: | Llamasoft |
| Publisher: | Llamasoft |
| Designer: | Jeff Minter |
| Series: | Gridrunner |
| Released: | 2002: Mac, Windows |
| Genre: | Shoot 'em up |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Platforms: | Mac OS X, Windows |
Gridrunner++ is a shoot 'em up written by Jeff Minter for Pocket PC, then for Windows.[1] It has since been ported to Mac OS X and iOS. It was only available as shareware for download from the Llamasoft website, with a registration fee of £5.[2] It was followed-up by Gridrunner Revolution (2009) and Gridrunner iOS (2012).[3]
The player controls a spacecraft with the mouse. A series of enemies appear and attack the craft; the player must destroy all enemies on the stage to complete it. Enemies that are part of the current stage but have not yet begun to attack can be seen as glowing lines in the background.
The player's ship fires bullets upwards continuously, which are used to attack the enemies. If the player's ship contacts an enemy, it is immediately destroyed.
Small circular "pods" may be left on the stage in the locations where enemies are killed; some stages include special enemies which drop pods directly onto the stage in lines. Pods can be destroyed by shooting them. They destroy the player's ship if the player collides with them, and if left unattended eventually explode sending out lines in the four cardinal directions. These lines are also fatal to the player's ship.
Finally, at intermittent moments the "XY zapper" is activated: four sets of lines begin to converge on a particular location on the screen. When they do, the player's ship is destroyed if it is aligned with that location either horizontally or vertically.
As the player scores points, sheep (referred to as "sheepies") begin to drop from the top of the screen. These sheepies have several different effects:
The registered version of the game has 50 levels, ending with "Love Sheepie Plushophilia", a level where the enemies are copies of Jeff's own avatar from the message board. When this stage is completed, a photograph of one of Jeff's real pet sheep appears over the game field accompanied by a congratulations message and the enigmatic note: "Shysheep salutes you with stars in her nose!". The game then restarts from the first level, with score and lives retained.
The "Special Edition" of Gridrunner++ was originally created for a gathering of members of the Llamasoft message board taking place in London. It was originally only available at that gathering or via word of mouth from those who had attended. It was later released by Jeff for download but has been removed from the Llamasoft Archive site, due to it being played without buying the standard (registered) version first. The Special Edition is based on the registered version of Gridrunner++ and no trial version of it exists. The Special Edition features the following changes:
The Mac version has several additions to the Windows version including live online scoreboards and "Turbo Nutter Mode" which allows the player to enjoy the game at double speed. It was converted to the Mac by Gary Liddon.