a space shoot'em up I can't remember ! [found : Beam War]

onpurpose · Last edited by onpurpose on Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:35 am; edited 1 time in total

Hello fellows

Hi, my name is victor.

Well, let's be honest. I registered on the forums in order to find back an old LCD game I have been playing with in my childhood, and for which I am turning crazy for, nowadays.

It was totally out of my mind, until my best friend show me a game & watch and bam!! the dirty obsession that had disappeared for centuries has just striked back and punched me in the face.

I really have looked for it for hours on the web, but really I can’t find anything. The game design was really awesome ! Sound effects were really great too.

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To give a context. I’m from Belgium, I’m born in 1980 and i remember to have played this game, mmmh, let’s say between 1987 and 1991.

I don’t remember the design of the handled but I was really sure it was a game & watch because of the design (widescreen, 1 color lcd screen) and the quality of build. But after some research, it turned that it isn’t.

So the game;

Basically, the game is a space shoot’em up, something like space invaders but definitely not the same design and with a little richer gameplay.

You move your shuttle from left to right only, at the bottom of the screen. There’s button for shooting rockets at ennemies.

At the beginning you space shuttle is a tiny rocket. and the enemies are tiny too. After a bunch of good shots, an upgrade for your rocket appears far away at the right of the screen; you must move your ship to the right avoiding missiles and enemies to catch the upgrade.

If you don’t catch it, no worries, nothing happens, but better have it because the ennemies will become more resistant.

If you catch the upgrade, this is what happens :

Your shuttle turns bigger, features an armor, fires more powerful rockets. I think they are 3 or 4 levels of upgrades. the last upgrade makes your rockets go though a bunch of ennemies (depending on their own armor) .

Ennemies (shuttles, not monsters) get stronger and more resistant, too. When an enemy touches the bottom of the screen, or if you are harmed by an enemy or rocket, you loose one level of your armor, or one life if you don’t have any.

Last but not least, once in a while (i think every 100 points or so) a big mothership appears at the top of the screen and slowly navigates from right to left, and you must try to destroy it to earn bonus points.

Damn, I played this game one day or two only, but it really engraved itself deep in my mind, and I would like to know if any of you has heard about such a game?

Thank you for any information you could give about this game !

Rik · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:46 am Post subject:

Damn, if I didn't know you were talking about a handheld, I'd swear you were talking about the Taito arcade game Alcon... Smile

Don't think a handheld was ever made of it though.

Can you describe the game itself? Size, color, etc? It only had one LCD screen, and was in color?

1987+ is a little out of the range of games I'm familiar with, but there are others here that might know it... Cool

Jethro · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 3:24 pm Post subject:

Is one of these?
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Tomy/Slimboy.htm
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** My Collection **

onpurpose · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 4:30 pm Post subject:

blanka · Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:58 pm Post subject:

What do you mean with colour LCD screen?
Game and watches (except for 2 strange ones and the backlit models) are black sprite LCD's on coloured backgrounds.

For ones with coloured sprites the search field is pretty narrow. Tomy has a bunch, you have the backlit LCD's like this one:
http://handhelden.com/index.php?brand=bandai&game=bandai/Wingman

onpurpose · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 2:16 am Post subject:

There must have been a confusion, I didn't mention any colour for the ink. I confirm it was black ink in a lcd screen, like g&w series. I don't remember anything about the background image.

The design of the device, very simple and similar to a g&w.

onpurpose · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 2:32 am Post subject:

My friends, I think I have found it!

I have extended my research to other shapes of devices and I found what I was looking for, it is the Beam War by Casio.

Maybe there was another release on rectangular by another manufacturer, but the design of the crafts and weapons is exactly what I remember!

http://handheldempire.com/game.jsp?game=386

Thank you for your help

blanka · Posted: Tue Mar 11, 2014 4:57 am Post subject:

I was expecting Casio. It sounded familiar if the theme had been guerilla warfare... Great sounding probably, those Casio's rock in that department.

onpurpose · Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2014 12:52 am Post subject:

i'm so happy to have found which game it was. Of course I have found and bought it Smile

Viva internet !