PUBLIC MARKS with tags shooter & article

Following on from our article on Homebrew Shmup's, NTSC-uk decided to catch up with OMEGA, the Japan based homebrew Shmup developer (and creators of titles such as EveryExtend and Dan! Da! Dan!) to find out a little bit more about what goes on behind the scenes.

ABA Games is a little Japanese company that has dedicated itself to that strange, videogame induced Nirvana, and they've produced a half dozen games that'll help you get there. Stranger still, they don't want a penny for it. How enlightened.

Shooters are the foundation of the video game industry, dating back all the way to the 1960's with Steve Russell's classic Spacewar. Since that time, the genre has been responsible for bringing much depth to the world of interactive entertainment, popularizing vital concepts like the power-up and the end-of-level boss which are still used in many of today's greatest games.

The idea behind the game is to collect enemy objects and make them explode. You have to avoid enemy objects and gather them in the center of the screen. Bring together a certain number of enemies, and they will explode. You'll apparently be able to gather enemies together in excess of one hundred.