1986 · Arcade · Shoot 'em up

Thrust

Atari console exclusive

The aim of this shooter game is to pilot a spacecraft which must pick up a pod using a tractor beam and fly it into space. The ship and pod are subject to gravity and inertia, and being connected by a stiff rod, they can end up spinning around each other, out of control. Hitting the walls of the cave with either the ship or the pod results in death.

Released: 1986
Platforms: Acorn Electron Amstrad CPC Atari 2600 Atari 8-bit Atari ST Atari ST/STE BBC Microcomputer System Commodore 16 Commodore 64 Commodore C64/128/MAX Vectrex ZX Spectrum
Genres: Arcade Shoot 'em up Shooter
Developers: —
Publishers: Superior Software
Perspective: Side view
Themes: Action Science fiction
Country: United Kingdom
Composers: Rob Hubbard

About

Thrust is a 1986 video game programmed by Jeremy C. Smith (who later co-authored Exile) for the BBC Micro and published by Superior Software. The player's aim is to manoeuvre a spaceship by rotating and thrusting, as it flies over a two-dimensional landscape and through caverns. The gameplay of Thrust was heavily inspired by Atari's Gravitar.

Thrust was ported to the Acorn Electron, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari ST, Commodore 16/Plus 4, and ZX Spectrum. Firebird released a sequel, Thrust II, in 1988.

›Story

Each planet has turrets which fire bullets at the ship, which can be destroyed with a single shot, and a reactor which powers the defence system of each planet. If the reactor is shot enough the turrets will cease firing for a short amount of time. Hitting the reactor with many bullets causes it to go critical and destroy the planet in 10 seconds - the ship must escape into space before this happens, with or without the pod (more points are gained if the pod is present).

Fuel is needed to manœuvre the ship and can be collected with the tractor beam, if the ship runs out of fuel the whole game is over. A shield is also available, although when activated it uses fuel and the ship cannot shoot.

Keywords

gravity
spaceship

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

The aim is to pilot a spacecraft which must pick up a pod using a tractor beam and fly it into space. The ship and pod are subject to gravity and inertia, and being connected by a stiff rod can end up spinning around each other, out of control. Hitting the walls of the cave with the ship or the pod results in death.

Each planet has turrets that fire bullets at the ship, which can be destroyed with a single shot. There is also a reactor that powers the defence system of each planet. If the reactor is shot enough, the turrets will cease firing for a short amount of time. Hitting the reactor with enough bullets causes it to go critical and destroy the planet in 10 seconds. The ship must escape into space before this happens, with (more points are gained) or without the pod.

Legacy

Hobbyist-written clones were released for the Atari 2600 (2000) and Vectrex (2004) consoles using the same name as the original.

Thrust was credited by Bjørn Stabell as an influence on the game XPilot.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

Platform	Released	Regions
Commodore C64/128/MAX	31 December 1986	Europe
Amstrad CPC	31 December 1986	Europe
ZX Spectrum	31 December 1986	Europe
BBC Microcomputer System	31 December 1986	Europe
Atari 8-bit	31 December 1986	Europe
Acorn Electron	31 December 1986	Europe
Commodore 16	31 December 1987	Europe
Atari ST/STE	31 December 1988	Europe