Defence Force on the Oric Atmos
23"PROLOGUE
Somewhere across the galaxy the battle continued...
Although humanity had been almost totally destroyed, it still had a hope if the last humans could survive.
But on a now very desolate planet, orbiting the star Sol, time was running out."
Written by Andrew Moore and published in 1983 by Tansoft, Defence Force falls in the category of 'Defender Clones'.
Like in other Defender games the aim is to save the human population before they got abducted by aliens and transformed in assassin drones. If all humans get abducted the game moves to some alternate universe with fast flying aliens that try to kill you, a good motivation to help humans!
One of the interesting twists of this Oric version is that it does not have a key for firing the lasers: Just moving around generates a stream of lethal beams and makes wavy and smooth movements a very efficient way to vanquish the aliens.
In addition to the weapon and movement keys the space bar can be used to enable a shield protecting you for few seconds.
Despite being a first generation game, Defence Force is efficient at giving the illusion of a smooth and fast scrolling with many sprites on the screen. Some people tend to hate the audio part while some other actually enjoy it, I guess it's a matter of taste.
The introduction sequence simulates the type of display found on arcade games, with flashy titles, high scores, text scrolling and an enemy score chart.
The game is very playable but tends to be quite difficult so it is advised to use the beginner mode first. Hint: Don't hesitate using your shields, and just try to keep one human alive! You are not going to make a high score with this method but at least you should be able to survive and avoid the dreaded death world!
For some Oric users this is an iconic game, this explains why its name was chosen for what has become one of the most used Oric websites: http://www.defence-force.org
We hope you will enjoy this game!
Oric.org information page:
- http://www.oric.org/index.php?page=software&fille=detail&num_log=2
Moby-games page:
- https://www.mobygames.com/game/defence-force