Dinesh Elumalai reviews one of the earliest shoot’em up games on a mobile platform and takes us down nostalgia lane.
Despite living an observatory lifestyle, I have had the good fortune to attempt and subsequently see anything visibly over the years. I would not want to know if it is little or lot, huge or small, common, or unusual, famous, or not. Sometimes the things I think back on are things that I used or did in the past simply for the sake of doing them. I would then try to think about these items to draw lessons from their creation, production, or results.
In this regard, I have thought about a game called Space Impact, which was available on one of the earliest mobile devices. Space Impact was a “shoot ’em up” video game created and released for Nokia phones, including the Nokia 3310, Nokia 3320, Nokia 3330, Nokia 3350, Nokia 3360, Nokia 3390, Nokia 3410, and Nokia 3610. It was often coupled with a snake variant.
I can still taste the satisfaction of taking on that boss. It makes me feel nostalgic when I think about it. Lol! Nah, I just utter the phrase “how did the battery go out when I played it” at most. Yes, think of it the model it was released is the rock solid for its battery performance. I still remember that my father use to charge his mobile Nokia 3310 (so called brick handset of those period) once in a week until I started playing games in his mobile under our bedsheet, after that he use to charge his mobile every couple of days cursing me for it.
Gameplay
With a few exceptions on a few platform-like stages in Space Impact 2, the player can freely move both horizontally and vertically, but they are unable to speed up the auto-scrolling aspect of the screen. When the player’s standard projectiles are ineffective against the adversary, they can use power ups (such as rockets or lasers) that they can pick up while progressing through the stages.
Several enemy ships confront the player as they progress through each level, some of them shooting at the ship while others are following it on rigid paths. There are eight stages in the first game, each with a boss at the conclusion. The levels are set on various planets and underground regions.
After using up their lives, the player is given a score, which can be displayed on the Top Scores tab in the game’s menu depending on how many opponents were defeated, how many powerups were selected, and how many stages were completed.
Instructions
Utilize your weapons to withstand assaults.
- Keys 8 and 0 can be used to move up and down.
- To travel ahead or backward, press the # or * keys, respectively.
- The laser beams can be fired with keys 1 and 3.
- To fire the special weapons, press keys 4 and 6 (there are three weapons: bombs, rockets, and long-range lasers)
The player could press the fire button repeatedly on the Nokia 3410 to fire rapidly. An earlier model, like the Nokia 3310, could not accomplish this.
The WAP-enhanced versions of the Nokia 3310 (3330 and 3350) and Nokia 3410 provide the option to download more Space Impact chapters using the phone’s WAP connection (the service called Nokia Club).
For devices like the Nokia 3410, an Xpress-on cover with a Space Impact theme was made available. In addition, Throughout the levels, the player can gather power-ups that grant extra lives or unique weapons.
It is a low-resolution game that people my age would play for hours on end, draining the battery from 100% to 0% while attempting to defeat the minor enemies, or “bosses,” as we often referred to them back then, to advance to the next level. I want us to stop for a moment and consider what we have in common while playing this small game and get some goosebumps moments as I am getting right now while writing up this for you all.
We shared the desire to obtain the 3310 regardless of where it was hidden in the home by our older sisters, brothers, mothers, or fathers who originally own the phone but do not participate in the game. We all would have felt that the purpose of this model to play games without playing it what use of holding it.
We would even pretend that we wanted to check the phone or do something else on it simply to get access to it, and we would persist until we had the phone. I used to pester my father that you have received SMS if we did not read and clear your mobile will not work further. (I laugh now for such statements)
We shared the same habit of sneaking into the room after our fathers, for example, had gone to sleep and softly picked up this phone and continued to play it till the early morning hours to complete the level. “Many in this generation confessing that their children, spouse and siblings are having the habit of taking their mobile to restroom, I must say you won’t believe I had taken 3310 to toilet to play game peacefully every morning before my dad leaves to work.”
We would use it, burning up so hot when caught, and even though we would be reprimanded, we would continue using it since we needed to complete the level (s). I was reprimanded severely by my father as well as my mother for playing for a long time, yet they could not make me quit.
We would be playing the same game while the phone was plugged in to charge because we had something in common (which is unhealthy though, but we would not mind)
We shared that interest. When we initially played it, we were blown off the rocks or got blown off the sky, but we kept playing it and improved with each try until we eventually won.
We all had it in common we were restricted in movement (due to the joypad) to move merely horizontally and vertically yet we nonetheless finished all the levels or at least killed some “bosses”.
Before we reached the primary adversaries, we had all shared the experience of being shot at more times than we could count by the tiny battleships. The major antagonist shot many of us more times than we would ever be able to count; I lost track.
Many of us attempted to kill the main antagonist with just one life left, while others reached the location with four “lives” and lost everything to the antagonist but still restarted the game until they succeeded.
Conclusion
If I am correct, most of the things we accomplished with this game when we were younger are simply time-consuming, heroic, demanding of fervor, determining of desire, sapping of dedication, of force, of positive energy, of great might at will, needing a sound mind, needing patience, etc.
The same us from back then recognized us as the same people we are today, right? The same attitudes or variables could be released from their resting states at or as our dreams to succeed in. Like there are tiny battleships, there are also various tiny problems that we must deal with as we rise to become better members of our societies. There are bigger problems that we must face, like the “bosses” in the s, in terms of our physical, spiritual, mental, economic, and other well-being. But the fact that they are there suggests that they can be defeated.
We would only be able to use s as we once did if and only if. Then, I believed, and you believed that the games, such as BOUNCE, SNAKE, TETRIS, and so forth, could be defeated by attempting again, again, and again. Yet, keep in mind that sometimes we would reset and win after resting our thumbs and techniques. To eventually prevail in both the battles and the wars of life, it is occasionally necessary to know when to retreat (for the most part) and to really do so. I hope I have taken you all on a trip to your childhood. If you are this generation sit and discuss with your elders, this article is not about exaggeration of a simple game.
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