Gridrunner++

Gridrunner++
Developer(s) Llamasoft
Publisher(s) Llamasoft
Designer(s) Jeff Minter
Platform(s) Mac OS X, Windows
Release date(s) 2002 (Mac OS X, Windows)
Genre(s) Scrolling shooter
Mode(s) single player

Gridrunner++ is a shooting game written by Jeff Minter originally for Pocket PC but released commercially for Windows.[1] It has since been ported to Mac OS X, to the iPhone, to a portable Java applet, and to Flash for Facebook.[2] It was offered only as shareware for download from the Llamasoft website, with a registration fee of £5.[3] It has been followed up by Gridrunner Revolution (2009) and Gridrunner iOS (2012).[4]

Gameplay

The player controls a spacecraft with the mouse. A series of enemies appear and attack the craft; the player must destroy all enemies on the stage to complete it. Enemies that are part of the current stage but have not yet begun to attack can be seen as glowing lines in the background.

The player's ship fires bullets upwards continuously, which are used to attack the enemies. If the player's ship contacts an enemy, it is immediately destroyed.

Small circular "pods" may be left on the stage in the locations where enemies are killed; some stages include special enemies which drop pods directly onto the stage in lines. Pods can be destroyed by shooting them. They destroy the player's ship if the player collides with them, and if left unattended eventually explode sending out lines in the four cardinal directions. These lines are also fatal to the player's ship.

Finally, at intermittent moments the "XY zapper" is activated: four sets of lines begin to converge on a particular location on the screen. When they do, the player's ship is destroyed if it is aligned with that location either horizontally or vertically.

As the player scores points, sheep (referred to as "sheepies") begin to drop from the top of the screen. These sheepies have several different effects:

References to other works

As with many of Jeff Minter's games, Gridrunner++ is riddled with references and in-jokes. These include references to Underworld tracks, retro games, and numerous references to users on the Llamasoft BBS, Yak Yak.

Special edition

The "Special Edition" of Gridrunner++ was originally created for a gathering of members of the Llamasoft message board taking place in London. It was originally only available at that gathering or via word of mouth from those who had attended. It was later released by Jeff for download but has been removed from the Llamasoft Archive site, due to it being played without buying the standard (registered) version first. The Special Edition is based on the registered version of Gridrunner++; no trial version of it exists. The Special Edition features the following changes:

Ending

The registered version of the game has 50 levels, ending with "Love Sheepie Plushophilia", a level where the enemies are copies of Jeff's own avatar from the message board. When this stage is completed, a photograph of one of Jeff's real pet sheep appears over the game field accompanied by a congratulations message and the enigmatic note: "Shysheep salutes you with stars in her nose!". The game then restarts from the first level, with score and lives retained.

Mac Edition

The Mac version has several additions to the PC version including live online scoreboards and "Turbo Nutter Mode" which allows the player to enjoy the game at double speed. It was converted to the Mac by Gary Liddon.

References

  1. Killen, Kieron. Unknown Pleasures 2009: Gridrunner+++. Rock, Paper Shotgun. 22 January 2009.
  2. Carless, Simon. GameSetLinks: Free To Think, And To Play. GameSetWatch. 5 February 2008.
  3. McWherter, Michael. Minter Working On Gridrunner++ For XBLA. Kotaku. 3 October 2007.
  4. Cowan, Danny. Jeff Minter Readies Updated Gridrunner For iOS. IndieGames. 22 February 2012.

External links

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