3D Starfighter
A space combat game for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum, placing the player in the cockpit of a starfighter.
Image credits and source
Original cover / promotional artwork
Credit: Codemasters — artwork belongs to its respective rights holders
Source: The Oliver Twins archive
Game at a glance
- Status
- Classic
- Released
- 1987
- Platforms
- Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
- Genres
- Shoot 'em up
- Developer
- The Oliver Twins (original development)
- Publisher
- Codemasters
Development and publication
Development: The Oliver Twins (original development). Publication: Codemasters.
The named development credit refers to the original or specifically identified version. Other ports and later re-releases may have different development teams.
Making the game
After producing the complex Professional Ski Simulator we decided it was time to write a more simplistic arcade game. We remembered seeing the vector graphic game Tail Gunner years earlier and saw how well it captured the atmosphere and action of the classic Star Wars dog fight in space and wondered if we could do an arcade game like this with waves of enemies more like a traditional arcade game.
We couldn’t do 3D graphics but had seen how Sega’s Space Harrier, a remarkable popular game, had a player flying across a landscape shooting oncoming enemies in what was supposedly 3D graphics, but were just different size sprites. We felt we could use this method to produce the arcade-style game that we were looking for, plus it would also be very quick and easy to make.
The results were indeed quick, taking around 2 weeks to write, but the results weren’t as satisfying as we hoped. We couldn’t see how to make a massive improvement in the game and decided to release it since it was to be priced at £1.99 and we still felt this represented enough value for money.