Video games - Raptor: Call of the Shadows

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	Video games - Raptor: Call of the Shadows

Raptor: Call of the Shadows (often Raptor for short) is a 2D raster graphics vertical scrolling shoot 'em up single player game for the x86 PC written for MS-DOS, by Cygnus Studios (which has since changed its name to Mountain King Studios).

"In the future as a mercenary flying the super-tech Raptor, you'll be sent on interplanetary missions to knock off top competitors of MegaCorps."

Description

The game is divided into three "sectors": Bravo Sector, Tango Sector, and Outer Regions, which each have nine sub-missions called "waves", making for a total of 27 levels. As in all shoot 'em up games of this genre, there is a vast number of enemies to kill, both on the ground and in the air. At the end of each wave there is a "boss" which is a single enemy of great size and whom can take a lot of fire before succumbing. For each target destroyed the player earns credits, with the amount of credits earned per enemy destroyed is proportional to how tough the enemy ship is. Between new waves and sectors the player can use credits to select among 16 different equipment upgrades (various weapons, "shield-packs", bombs, etc.) to be bought for his own aircraft.

The player starts out with only the default machine guns, and will eventually be able to buy or find more and stronger weapons. There are two primary types of weapons, one type is always active, i.e. it will always fire whenever you shoot, and then there is a selectable type, which is a range (if you have bought them) of weapons you can select a single weapon from to fire simultaneously as the primary weapon(s) fire -- but all selectable weapons cannot be fired simultaneously, only one at a time. There are however not many of the fixed/active weapon type. In addition there is also a special type of weapon which is a powerful bomb, the bomb will take hitpoints from everything on the visible screen and usually kill the smaller enemy ships instantly. Though you can upgrade your ship there is only one usable ship for the player, i.e. you can't buy new or different ships. If the player's ship takes enough damage, it will lose selectable weapons.

The large amount of money that the player could earn ensured that players would max out on active/fixed weapons, even though they weren't particularly effective. Despite the variety of selectable weapons, only a few were "worth getting". The Laser Turret and Twin Laser were considered ridiculously overpowered for the Bravo and Tango sectors; the Laser Turret could destroy enemies after they barely appeared, while the Twin Laser could easily make short work of a boss in a few hits. In the Outer Regions (third episode), the Twin Laser was essentially required for most situations, and the Auto-Track Minigun unexpectedly regained usefulness for taking out "component" ground bosses (where each individual gun was a target had to be knocked out), while the Laser Turret was rendered useless against the much tougher ships.

Some consider Raptor very repetitive for its time when compared to shoot 'em ups for arcades. Enemies are destroyed purely for money, they will not release powerups that make the player more powerful or stronger. Flying enemies also only move in fixed predictable patterns - they will not react or home on the player's moves (although turrets will). The Raptor fighter jet could take lots of punishment if the player bought Phase Shields, but there were no lives that could be earned (via points) or bought - once the player died it was over unless he had saved. There are no obstacles to avoid (except the enemy ships themselves of course) and never does an enemy ship enter from the side or from below. No levels take place in space -- only interplanetary missions are available (these are however greatly detailed and varied). There is no multiplayer support. The display is fixed to only scrolling vertically -- never horizontally (as in e.g. Axelay for the SNES console).

Tyrian (1995) is considered much more innovative and less repetitive than Raptor, as it adopted Raptor's credit system and the arcade's powerups. Nonetheless, Raptor is still considered far more polished and realistic-looking. At it's release, Raptor had the best graphics of any scrolling shooter to date and was not surpassed in this regard for several years until Stargunner, also by Apogee.

Raptor: Call of the Shadows was originally released on April 1, 1994. There is a shareware version available for this game which includes the first sector, the Bravo Sector. The full version can still be bought today (as of 2006).

Debug Mode

At the DOS prompt, before starting the game, enter "SET S_HOST=CASTLE"; this activates debug mode. In debug mode you are invincible and have all the weapons.

In addition, debug mode allows you to level warp. At the episode selection screen you type a cheat code to go to any level. The cheat code is two letters, the first represents the sector ('Z' for Bravo, 'X' for Tango, 'C' for Outer Regions), and the second represents the wave (the keys on the keyboard between 'Q' and 'O' with 'Q' for the first wave and 'O' for the last wave). For example, 'ZO' would make you jump to Bravo sector at Wave 9.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Raptor: Call of the Shadows ]

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