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Description
In the first half of 2023, I was challenged to design a unique ZX Spectrum game based upon the Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back. The idea was to create something that showed more of the movie, more faithfully than either the old Atari arcade game or the more recent - but still retro - games for the 8-bit and 16-bit consoles from Sega and Nintendo.

With the screen geometry adjusted, the play area becomes just 224x128 pixels, the segmented Exogorth boss for the first phase of Level 4 looks suitably huge. He's shown here with two 'neck' parts behind his head, allowing him to bob up and down more naturally, but I guess he could extend himself out of the hole by another one or two..? He shoots out fireballs in a fairly standard 5-3 spreading formation, just to add to the challenge. I did consider making his 'bullets' into Mynocks, but they'd be less than a pixel in size if they were kept to scale.

Description
In the first half of 2023, I was challenged to design a unique ZX Spectrum game based upon the Star Wars movie The Empire Strikes Back. The idea was to create something that showed more of the movie, more faithfully than either the old Atari arcade game or the more recent - but still retro - games for the 8-bit and 16-bit consoles from Sega and Nintendo.

With the screen geometry adjusted, the play area becomes just 224x128 pixels, the segmented Exogorth boss for the first phase of Level 4 looks suitably huge. He's shown here with two 'neck' parts behind his head, allowing him to bob up and down more naturally, but I guess he could extend himself out of the hole by another one or two..? He shoots out fireballs in a fairly standard 5-3 spreading formation, just to add to the challenge. I did consider making his 'bullets' into Mynocks, but they'd be less than a pixel in size if they were kept to scale.