OverKill for DOS
If I remember correctly, this was the game that caused me to go out and get a controller for the computer … and in 1992 there was only one real choice : the Gravis PC Gamepad. I think I still have one of those around somewhere. Though I haven’t any idea if it works. But regardless, this is one of those games that I only had the shareware version of when I was younger. Hell, I was running it on a computer that didn’t even have a sound card. So I never got to listen to the kickass music this game was pumping out till MUCH later. Though, it did use the PC speaker for the shots and sound effects (which actually sound pretty decent) so at least I got part of the experience, even though it was limited to “pew pew pew” and a few garbled sounds that vaguely sound like explosions. I remember screwing on that little joystick attachment to the Gravis Pad and playing with that after I decided the directional pad wasn’t as good as it could be for a game like this.
This game starts off simply enough, with an enemy wave not unlike the classics like Space Invaders, Galaxian and Galaga. You destroy all those, and then you enter the real stage which is a vertically scrolling shmup that has a powerup system not unlike something like Gradius. Spot on controls, highly detailed 16 color VGA graphics, great music and tons of varied stages and enemies to fight through. And once you get that ship upgraded, you’ll be tearing through the levels like nothin’ … until you die then your ship is kicked back to your little pop gun. I had fun with this when I was constantly playing the shareware version on a 10mhz 8088 back in the day and I’m having fun with it now on my “modern” computer playing under DOSBox now. It has aged gracefully, and if you’re a fun of shmups, this is definitely worth playing, even if you’re not a big shmup fan.
Download OverKill – 425k And you’ll probably need DOSBox.
Possibly related posts: