Commodore 64 Longplay [257] Neutral Zone (EU)
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Played by: MadMatty
Neutral Zone, developed by Bruce Carver and published by Access Software (US), Americana Software (EU) and released in 1983.
"Neutral Zone takes you to the outer edges of our galaxy. You are assigned to a perimeter gunnery pod to Protect Alpha IV, a long range, early warning station whose mission is to detect alien intruders. Engage the attack computer and prepare yourself to take on a squadron of homicidal, even suicidal aliens. Your survival will depend on your quick wits and split second reaction!"
The first game from Access Software for the C64 and one of the earliest games if not the first to start taking advantage of the C64 hardware for multicolor sprites and smooth scrolling. There is not much to the game except shooting alien ships, but it's 1983 and you have to start somewhere.
In the longplay I show two plays through. The first on Crazy difficulty. The enemy ships are small, fast and difficult to hit. You have to destroy 50 enemies at this difficulty. They will all be shooting at the station which can also only take upto 50 damage points. They will also be shooting at you and should you take damage, your movement speed will be slowed and firing rate. In the first attack the enemies will do minor damage. Should they survive a second run, they will kamikaze into the station doing lots of damage. Should you survive to the end you are given a rating based on how long you took, how many shots were fired and how much damage was sustained.
On the second play, I show the normal difficulty. Only 20 enemies are required to be shot down and are a mix of large and small enemy craft. I actually found it more challenging due to the timing of the enemy firing at your pod.
Lastly I show what happens if the station is destroyed. Interestingly if the game notices that you are useless and not shooting at anything, it takes control and attempts to save the day which I thought as pretty neat (Not Shown). It doesn't do much for your rating though at the end of the game.
00:00:25 - Crazy Difficulty
00:11:55 - Intermediate Difficulty
00:16:20 - The Terrorists win!
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