Oids

Players assume control of a V-Wing, a rotatable craft with thrusters that is constantly subject to gravity and the craft's inertia. During the course of the game, players have to dodge enemy fire, shoot at enemies and carefully manoeuvre the V-Wing through a series of cavernous alien landscapes filled with various types of enemies and defense systems. The main goal in the game is rescuing the "OIDS". This is accomplished by destroying the factories in which they are held captive, bringing them on board the V-Wing by landing it on flat ground and transporting them to the waiting mothership.

The V-Wing is armed with two types of weapons, an unlimited number of "nuclear photons" and a limited number of, much more powerful, "NovaBombs". The former are released in a machine-gun fashion, while the latter is dropped one at a time and can be detonated in two ways; normally, a NovaBomb will explode only when it contacts the ground or a shield. However, it's also possible for the players to control the detonation by holding down the NovaBomb key and releasing it when they want the NovaBomb to explode.

The Evil Biocretes, rulers of the wealthiest parallel universe in the cosmos, have created a race of android slaves they call "OIDS". The Biocretes treat the gentle, peace-loving OIDS worse than space debris; they abuse them in every way imaginable. While the downtrodden OIDS toil in filthy, dangerous energy factories, the Biocretes live lives of gluttony and greed, savoring the fruits of the OIDS' labor. The OIDS are allowed to rust, denied of their basic need for oil.

Often they are forced to work with one or two limbs completely rusted off. When the OIDS are finally fatigued to the point of collapse, the Biocretes tortuously melt them alive to build new OIDS. "They're just stupid heaps of metal", the Biocretes rationalize. "They have no hearts.

ACE gave the game a score of 969 out of 1000, describing it as "a gutsy, brainy, frantically obsessive shoot-em-up with strategic depth". They felt that "the tiny detailed graphics reach their peak with the perfectly animated Oids themselves, but are low-key enough to let you concentrate on the game's unrivaled action". They also praised the inclusion of a level editor as a bonus that increases the game's value for money. ACE editor Andy Wilton concluded, saying, "some wonderful set-pieces and hellish crossfire zones make the game tremendously playable" and "the sheer intensity of addiction it generates will have you playing night and day (...) If you're sick of all those glossy, disposable ST shoot-em-ups, get Oids - it'll knock your socks off".

Eugene Lacey of Computer and Video Games described the game as "a cross between Thrust and Choplifter", noting that "any ST owner who has played Thrust will not want to be without Oids". He awarded the game a score of 8 out of 10, saying "if you do fork out for it you are in for hours of excellent computer entertainment". According to John Manor of Antic, "Oids combines the daring rescues of Choplifter, the frantic action of Defender and the precision flying of Lunar Lander for a fantastic arcade shoot-em-up". He said that the Atari ST version "is skillfully crafted and detailed. It deserves to be on the wanted list of any arcade game fan".

In 2003, Kirk Baker – one of the original authors of the Macintosh version – released OIDS.X, an enhanced authorized shareware version of Oids for Mac OS X.

In a 2011 interview with Retro Gamer, Steve Hughes cites Oids as an influence when creating Solar Jetman (1990) for the Nintendo Entertainment System.