Game Review: Spectipede (Commodore 16 and Plus/4, Mastertronic)

After Tony Kelly of Mr Chip Software had programmed a version of Spectipede on the Commodore 64, that was different from the original Spectrum version but still had nods to the Centipede arcade game, it was natural that this was one of the early release titles for the Commodore 16 and Plus/4, converted and released a year after than the Commodore 64 version.  The original release had a slow blue screen loader, with later ones being remastered with Novaload, and so load much quicker.

Different Strokes

Like with the Commodore 64 version, you must shoot down the Spectipede and hitting its head means the tail shrinks less and less until you can destroy the head and the Spectipede.  The spiders move down the screen and turn into the mushrooms when hit, and if any spider hits the bottom of the screen, they spawn more spiders at the top, but with a difference which we will explain later.  If you constantly just shoot the spiders without shooting the Spectipede, then more will appear.  There are plasma bolts in the middle and an enemy that heads down the left side firing bullets too.

Fast and Furious

Once the game loads, the title screen is functional and shows the directions you can move in (notably only four instead of eight) as well as the same little grid scrolling background as you get during play.   You can press any key to start and like in the Commodore 64 version, select joystick or keyboard accordingly.    Once you have done that, you are ready to go.

There is a little introduction as the level number and get ready zips across the centre of the screen, with no waiting for the mushrooms randomly placed, and like the Commodore 64 version, the Spectipede roams around diagonally around the screen, with careful shots needed to aim at the head to reduce its size – in this version if you hit the body, the Spectipede splits, making more of them and harder to hit.  The spiders, green in colour, move down the screen, and fast reflexes are needed to shoot them as quickly as possible – if they reach the bottom they respawn at the top in different colours and are more difficult to kill – pink being the first colour change, which is another difference here.

Deflecting the Drama

You also have the plasma bolts in the middle which when shot rotate 90 degrees, however this also means that they can be set to deflect your bullets back at you, so you will need to be careful shooting upwards where they are.  There is also a difference here too in that there are two lots of them on level two, three on level three and so on, which means lots of deflecting bullets.  You can move up and down as well as left or right if you need to avoid any spiders, which can prove very useful too when tracking the Spectipede.  An enemy whizzes down the left and fires a bullet – this can often hit the plasma bolts and deflect, or if it hits the mushroom, or you shoot that, that bullet will come down at you, at some pace too.

Spectipede Scoring

There are some excellent sound effects as you hit the head or the body of the Spectipede, reducing its length or splitting it, and another sound effect indicates you have destroyed all of it, meaning you just then need to tackle the green spiders.  Remove all those, and the level is completed and you move on to the next one.  It does feel slower paced than the Commodore 64 version, but no bad thing for it as there is still plenty to contend with.  More so in later levels here, using those plasma bolts to deflect the bullets right and left can result in good hits too, but of course at risk to the bullet coming your way. Collide with any part of the Spectipede or a spider, or be hit by a bullet, and that is a life lost.

The status display at the top shows your score, the number of lives (men) represented by white ships and the level you are on.  Later levels get progressively faster and more difficult and with them adding extra plasma bolts for more deflecting bullets, meaning more strategy must be employed.  At the end of each level, you get a bonus of 1,000 points per men left, and an extra life too, meaning the difficulty curve is fair and gives you an incentive to keep going. I was able to get a decent score particularly if I destroyed the Spectipede quickly and could then concentrate on the spiders accordingly – and the extra life is valuable in later levels, I can vouch for that.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Spectipede are small but reasonably detailed, with each level having a background scrolling effect of squares which does not distract too much from the game – and on this version, a border which also helps you spot the enemy coming down the left side to shoot its bullet.  The Spectipede itself has a white head and purple tail so it is easy to spot when this has been reduced, with the green spiders and yellow mushrooms also easy to make out.   The sound effects work well and mean you can work out what is needed to destroy the Spectipede and other enemies, and a lovely colourful effect when you lose a life with sound, and when you complete a level, with an audible warning that this is happening too.

Final Thoughts

Spectipede is an admirable attempt at a Centipede style game for the Commodore 16 and Plus/4, and plays well to this day.  It is a solid conversion from the Commodore 64 version of the game, with all the features included plus some additional tweaks such as the different coloured spiders and the increasing number of plasma bolts in subsequent levels, giving the difficulty a different tweak but making it still enjoyable.  This is just as good as the other two main versions, and certainly proved a very popular game for the system – it sold more copies than both the Spectrum and Commodore 64 versions put together.  Now, back to getting that Spectipede…

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