Rocket Fighter
Release type: Shareware
Release date: 1993
Levels: 5
Author: Sherwood Forest
Registration bonus: Free game or two + current catalog
Registration price: $15
Related games: none
Not to be mistaken for Matt Bell's Rocket.
Rocket Fighter tries to sell itself as a space shooter, and (not unusually for Game-Maker) kind of misses the mark. Perhaps of interest is Rocket Fighter's huge open maps, and basically free roaming design. The player's ship constantly drifts up the screen, as in a typical top-down shooter. Despite this, the player can turn around entirely or fly straight to the left or right.
The arrow keys move, and the space bar shoots in the last direction pressed. Running into certain background features -- planets, specks of dust -- will increase the player's hit points, score, or other counters. Typically for Sherwood's games, there seems no end and little sense to the enemies. They just keep swarming, and moving erratically.
As in Air-Strike 42, the level objectives are completely opaque. The levels all seem to be variations on the same starfield, and the links between levels are unmarked. This means that you basically have to fly over every tile in the map, hoping to hit the gateway to the next level. Huzzah.
Contents
Story
You belong to the elite corps of Rocket Fighters, as a matter of fact you are the resident ace of the group. Your mission is to warp through the galaxy as you take out the various enemies of the Alliance. Armed with only the laser cannon in your ship, you must make the spaceways safe for mankind.
Instructions
Welcome to Rocket Fighter. You are the pilot of the red fighter ship. You can control the ship by using the four main arrow keys, or the joystick.
Your ship is equipped with a laser cannon which you can fire by either the spacebar, or the fire button.
The idea is to fly around space, blasting the enemy ships while you look for the space-warp. When you find the warp, fly into it, and be transported to the next level, where the ships are faster, and they fly in harder patterns.
After five levels are all cleared, you can rest as the hero of the galaxy.
Good luck, and good flying.
Credits
Rocket Fighter is from your friends at Sherwood Forest Software. We are the nut hut responsible for such games as Attack of the Killer Dandelions, Airstrike 42, Big Bob's Drive-In, and Melvin Freebush, just to name a few.
Availability
Available on several shareware compilation CD-ROMs, including:
- Public Software Library's PSL Monthly: November 1993 (November 1993),
- Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #2-01: Games (January 1994),
- Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #2-07: Games (July 1994),
- Adventures in Heaven 2 (1994),
- Public Software Library's PSL Monthly Volume #3-01: Games (January 1995),
- Public Software Library's PSL Monthly #3-10: Education (August 1995), and
- International Software Values' 10 Tons of Games Mega Collection 1 (June 1997).
Archive History
This game was added to the Archive on July 25, 2010. A search for common Game-Maker file types located the game on one of several CD-ROMs hosted on cd.archive.org.
Links
Interviews / Articles
- Cut-and-Paste Opportunism (DIYGamer.com - archive)
Listings
Misc. Links
Downloads
- Rocket Fighter (232.0 kB)
- Level 1 map (66 kB)
- Level 2 map (71.9 kB)
- Level 3 map (69.2 kB)
- Level 4 map (64.5 kB)
