The Classic PC Gaming Era (1977-1989) - Uridium
On the NES, this game was a curiosity based on the film The Last Starfighter. But on the Commodore 64 where it originated, it was one of the fastest and smoothest-moving shoot 'em ups ever made.
RELEASE DATE: 1986
DEVELOPER / PUBLISHER: Andrew Braybrook / Graftgold / Hewson Consultants
PLAYABILITY TODAY: Highly playable
BEST VERSIONS: Commodore 64
While Uridium is far from an obscure title in Europe (where it even received a Virtual Console release on the Nintendo Wii in 2008!), it was most famously released in North America in 1990 on the NES as The Last Starfighter, far too long after the 1984 film of the same name for most gamers to care about it and easily overshadowed by other NES shoot ‘em ups. And yet the NES port is largely the same as the absolutely mind-blowing Commodore 64 classic, a game which used some technological trickery to simulate parallax scrolling and which provided one of the smoothest arcade action experiences the C64 ever had to offer.
Uridium involves flying above large ships called Dreadnoughts and taking down stationary targets while avoiding flying enemies, homing mines and stationary hazards. Unlike most scrolling shoot ‘em ups, the game allows you to scroll the screen either to the left or the right by flipping your Manta ship around. By moving up and down, flipping your Manta and varying your speed, you can avoid many of the enemy attacks, and holding the fire button down allows you to flip your ship on its side to avoid tight squeezes. There are fifteen levels in all, and the game grows exponentially more challenging as it progresses. While beginners will take things slow and will probably die a lot, skilled players can blitz through levels and complete the game in about a half an hour.
The only part of the game that feels a little tacked on is a brief minigame where you land your ship on a Dreadnought you’ve mostly destroyed and then trigger a nuclear reactor detonation by hitting the button at the right time as you ascend a score pyramid. Fortunately, the only penalty for failure is gaining fewer points, and players can offset this loss by waiting to land and blasting additional fighters instead. Destroying Dreadnoughts is also quite satisfying because the game allows you to fly over and continue picking off missed defenses as the Dreadnought explodes. The game’s final level, which features the titular Dreadnought Uridium, dispenses with the shooting entirely and treats the player to the message, “Good Zapping… Turkey,” before the space fortress explodes and the game ends.
By modern standards, Uridium is still surprisingly fun today because its gameplay and mechanics are so simple and accessible. Braybrook released an enhanced and retooled version called Uridium Plus later in 1986 and an Amiga sequel called Uridum 2 in 1993, and while both are good games in their own right, neither achieves the same perfect balance of the original. What’s more, Uridium 2’s more sophisticated graphics and added mechanics actually make it less exciting today because it feels less distinctive.
As Our Series Continues…
In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about shoot ‘em ups, 3D games, flight simulators, sports games, gameroom games, puzzle games and so much more.
And while you’ll definitely see some titles from prominent North American publishers like Sierra On-Line, Infocom, Activision, Electronic Arts, Brøderbund, SSI, MicroProse, Lucasfilm Games, Epyx and Sir-Tech in the mix, you’ll also see references to games from the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Spain and Japan.
If you’ve missed the earlier entries in the series, which cover ASCII games, adventure games, wargames, strategy games and role-playing games, you can find the entire archive at https://greatestgames.substack.com.
Anything I don’t share here will be in my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Greatest Games You (Probably) Never Played Vol. 1. Subscribe to this newsletter so you won’t miss it!