Ludography
Datastorm cover

1989 · Shoot 'em up · Shooter

Datastorm

1989 video game

Released
1989
Platforms
Amiga
Genres
Shoot 'em upShooter
Developers
—
Publishers
—
Modes
Single-player
Themes
ActionScience fiction
Country
Denmark

About

Datastorm is a horizontally scrolling shooter for the Amiga published by Visionary Design in 1989. Written by Søren Grønbech, it was inspired by the Defender arcade video game and the Defender-like Dropzone originally released for Atari 8-bit computers.

Keywords

  • spaceship
  • side-scrolling
  • high score

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Datastorm allows for a single player to play or two players to play simultaneously or one after the other. The game takes place on planets in a side scrolling format that wraps around with the player flying above in a spacecraft. The player must protect and rescue the eight survival pods that roll around on the surface of the planet and take them to a warp gate. An onslaught of enemies attempt to attack the spaceship so constantly destroying them and their missiles is necessary.

There is also a special type of enemy called an alien lander that captures the pods and whisks them away to the top of the level. In addition to standard enemies, there are also mother ships, which act as bosses within the game. These mother ships come in the form of a fleet of fast luminous ships, a large squid or a large skull.

Story

The game takes place after the planet Xerxes exploded, causing its eight orbiting colonies to drift into deep space. The inhabitants of these colonies must locate a new home planet, so they each send a survival pod out into space to achieve this mission.

Reception

Datastorm received a generally favorable reception from critics. Computer and Video Games' Julian Rignall called it "the best shoot 'em up yet seen out of a coin-op cabinet".

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
AmigaUnreleased

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Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.