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Dropzone is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Archer Maclean (under the name Arena Graphics) for the Atari 8-bit family and published in 1984 by U.S. Gold.It was Maclean's first commercial game. It was ported to the Commodore 64, then later released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Gear and Game Boy Color. Dropzone is similar in gameplay and style to the.

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Dropzone Commander is a fast paced game set in the far future. The game is 10mm scale meaning massed city battles truly feel like a significant battle on your tabletop. From small, fast moving scout vehicles, infantry untis that search buildings for objectives, powerful tanks and walkers. Drop Zone was released on Video CD in 1996. The Drop Zone DVD was released in Region 1 on May 25, 1999 and Region 2 on June 5, 2000. The home media versions were distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment. Reception Box office. Drop Zone had a modest debut and experienced a 52% drop in its second weekend.

Dropzone is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Archer Maclean (under the name Arena Graphics) for the Atari 8-bit family and published in 1984 by U.S. Gold. It was ported to the Commodore 64, then later released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Game Boy Color.

Maclean's first commercial game, Dropzone is similar in gameplay and style to the arcade game Defender and borrows many elements,^[2][1] including the same style of font, aliens, and title screen.^[3][4]

Plot[edit]

Dropzone Helmet Restorations Co. WWII & Vietnam Helmets. WWII M1 2nd Ranger Bn. Helmet & MSA Liner Schlueter Front Seam 'Captain Miller' $ 315.00. Dropzone is a Defender clone. You have to shoot a lot of aliens and bring your own men back to the base. A difference is, that the hostile ships do not try to hijack the people spreading around, but rather drop killer androids. 26th June 2011 - 6 votes C64.com: 7: 16th April 2007 - 1399 downs Critics.

On the surface of Jupiter's moon, Io, a human scientific research base is under attack by aliens. The player dons a jetpack armed with a laser, a cloaking device and three smart bombs, to rescue the scientists and return them to the base.

Gameplay[edit]

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The gameplay is in the style of Williams Electronics' Defender, with some influences from Scramble and Robotron: 2084.^[2] Players control the hero trying to rescue the scientists on a horizontally-scrolling game field.^[3] Players must elude or engage various aliens—some slow, others faster—and return the scientists to the base's eponymous dropzone. The aliens capture scientists walking along the ground. The player must shoot the enemy aliens and catch the falling scientists. Sometimes the aliens will carry lethal androids instead, which must be avoided.^[3]

The ranks awarded to players at the end of a game are:

1. Not Listed - practice recommended
2. Dextral Dodger
3. Trekie
4. Moon Cadet
5. Planetsman
6. Ace
7. Planet Marshal
8. Planet Lord
9. Star Warrior
10. Solar Prodigy
11. Megastar - mission completed

There are 99 levels of gameplay, each increasingly difficult. After level 99, the levels repeat starting level 95.

Development[edit]

Maclean purchased an Atari 800 as soon as they were officially launched in the UK in 1981 and started writing what would eventually evolve into Dropzone. Maclean converted the game to the Commodore 64 himself:^[2]

The [Commodore] 64 Dropzone is about 46k [kilobytes] long and consists of 15,000 lines of sparsely commented code with around 350 subroutines and around 3000 labels. Those who can reach Megastar status on the 64 should have had enough practice to attempt an Atari supervised Dropzone mission. The Atari, being the Porsche of home computers, is capable of running Dropzone 2.5 times faster than the 64 and can handle any amount of blobs on screen, even when you release a Strata Bomb. It is visually, sonically etc., identical and about 12K shorter. However, the 64 is still a respectable BMW316.^[5]

The name Dropzone was not settled on until shortly before the game went gold.^[1]

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Maclean entered into a publishing deal with U.S. Gold for the European distribution of the game. After 18 months, however, they stopped paying him royalties claiming that the game was no longer selling. In addition, Maclean saw it for sale in areas outside of Europe and even in the United States. Four years of legal wrangling with the publisher followed, until they finally settled out of court for copyright infringement. With the proceeds from the settlement, Maclean bought his first Ferrari.^[1]

Reception[edit]

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The Commodore 64 version of the game was awarded a Gold Medal in issue 3 of Zzap!64 magazine, with an overall rating of 95%.^[6]

Legacy[edit]

The sequel, Super Dropzone, added new weapon types and end-level bosses. It is available for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (titled Super Dropzone on all packaging, but only Dropzone on the title screen), Game Boy Advance and PlayStation. Only the Game Boy Advance version saw a North American release; the others were European exclusives.

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcd'Archer MacLean interview'. Halcyon Days.
2. ^ ^abc'The making of... Dropzone', Edge, December 2006, archived from the original on 2007-02-21
3. ^ ^abcDropzone at MobyGames
4. ^Defender at the Killer List of Videogames
5. ^'Zzap!64 Tips Dropzone: An Explanation and Survival Tactics', Zzap!64 (5): 78–79, September 1985
6. ^'Dropzone Review', Zzap!64 (5): 18–19, July 1985