Parallax (video game)
A side-scrolling shooter with adventure-style puzzles.
Parallax is a shoot 'em up video game developed by British company Sensible Software for the Commodore 64, released in 1986 by Ocean Software in Europe and Mindscape in North America. It was named after its primary graphical feature, parallax scrolling, which creates an illusion of depth in side-scrolling games. The game was noted for blending traditional side-scrolling action with adventure game-inspired puzzles.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Sensible Software
- Publisher
- Ocean Software (EU); Mindscape (NA)
- Producer
- D. C. Ward
- Programmer
- Chris Yates
- Artist
- Jon Hare
- Composer
- Martin Galway
- Platforms
- Commodore 64
- Released
- EU/NA, October 1986
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The player controls the fifth of five astronauts who must free four captured companions and stop an alien invasion. The main mode is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up aboard a spaceship, where points are earned by destroying enemy ships and turrets. Landing at hangars switches to an action-adventure mode: the player drugs enemy scientists and collects keycards to unlock a password for the next zone. Each of five zones requires this; the first drugged scientist in a zone also counts as a rescued astronaut. Completing the fifth zone shuts down the invasion computer, followed by a final escape.
Development
Parallax was Sensible Software's first game, designed after signing with Ocean Software, the first publisher they approached. Programmer Chris Yates and artist Jon Hare were both 19 years old. Yates conceived a shoot 'em up where players could fly above and below platforms; Hare designed levels and graphics, and Yates added effects like sliding walls. Planned puzzle elements were scaled back due to the Commodore 64's limited memory. The ending, which simply displays 'System Off', was all that fit. Programming took six months, and the game was released in October 1986. The score was inspired by Jean-Michel Jarre's album Rendez-Vous, which composer Martin Galway had been listening to.
Reception
Contemporary reviews were positive, praising the mix of shoot 'em up action and adventure puzzles. Zzap!64 rated it 93/100, calling it a neat mix between shoot em up and an arcade adventure. Lee Noel, Jr. of Compute!'s Gazette noted excellent graphics and depth simulation, describing the gameplay as initially seeming like basic shoot 'em up components but later incorporating adventure elements, though stripped of characterization and complex interactions; he concluded it was an entertaining and incredibly challenging puzzle. Scott A. May of Commodore Magazine called it state-of-the-art arcade fare. David W. Wilson of Computer Gaming World praised the genre mix as the game's cleverest aspect. The Australian Commodore and Amiga Review wrote in 1990 that Parallax hadn't mellowed with age, rating it 90/100. Eurogamer's 2006 retrospective rated it 7/10, noting intriguing gameplay variety and neat parallax effects, but criticizing the anticlimactic ending. Author Roberto Dillon noted the chiptune score differentiated the game and became popular with retrogamers; Dan Pearson called the main theme truly demented but utterly mesmerising, and May said it was both inspirational and unnerving.
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