Xenon (video game) should not be confused with Xenon (pinball).
| Xenon | |
| Developer: | The Bitmap Brothers |
| Publisher: | Melbourne House |
| Released: | 1988 |
| Genre: | Vertically scrolling shooter |
| Modes: | Single-player |
| Platforms: | Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Arcade, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX, ZX Spectrum |
Xenon is a 1988 vertical scrolling shooter video game, the first developed by The Bitmap Brothers, and published by Melbourne House which was then owned by Mastertronic. It was featured as a play-by-phone game on the Saturday-morning kids' show Get Fresh.[1]
Xenon was followed in 1989 by .
thumb|left|In-game screenshot (Atari ST)According to the game's instruction manual,[2] the player assumes the role of Darrian, a future space pilot in the Federation, currently at war with a mysterious and violent alien species called the Xenites that has lasted a decade. In response to a mayday transmission from Captain Xod following an attack on his trading fleet, Darrian is forced to travel through Xenite-occupied territory in order to support.
Unlike most vertically scrolling shooters, the player craft has two modes, a flying plane and a ground tank. The transition between crafts can be initiated at almost any time during play (except during the mid- and end-of-level boss sections, as well as certain levels where a certain mode is forced), and the mode chosen depends on the nature of the threat the player faces.[3] Destroying some enemies released power-ups the player could catch to enhance their ship.
Originally released for the Atari ST, Xenon was quickly ported to other platforms: the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, DOS, MSX and ZX Spectrum.An arcade machine version of the game was also released through Mastertronic's Arcadia division which ran on Commodore Amiga hardware.[4]
Xenon was almost universally well-received on launch, with reviewers from magazines covering a range of platforms all scoring the game very highly.[5] [6] [7] [8] Only German magazine Power Play bucked the trend, awarding it a score of 4.5 out of 10.[9]
Writing in New Computer Express about the 1991 budget re-release, Stuart Campbell stated that although the graphics were "gorgeous" and had "never really been seen before", the gameplay was "simply tedious" and the game was the first to "turn 'style-over-content' into an artform".[10]
