Single Credit Review 003 – Parallax – Commodore 64

1986 – Ocean Software Limited & Sensible Software

Parallax is a top down multi-scrolling space ship shooter for the legendary Commodore 64. The instructions are pretty vague, but from what I get out of it your goal is to fly around and blow things up. There is a up and down pitch to the ship where you can land and take off. Playing only once, I could not see any merit for being on the ground. You can also get out of your ship, however I could not find anywhere to enter. In these single play games I’m not researching or doing any kind of cheating, I’m just experiencing the game as if I brought it home fresh from the store or put in my first quarter at the arcade.

I saw flashing towers and those exploded, so I decided to shoot all of those and any ship that was on the same plane as I was. It seems like your ship gets an insane amount of damage before exploding because I lasted a long time, getting a score of 17,210 on my first try.

The intro music and death/ high score music are extremely trippy and fun. Writing all this down while I’m listening to the intro music and seeing the crazy flashing on the intro screen is driving me mad…. The thing that is crazy is the length of these Commodore songs is ridiculous, no loop and it’s been almost 5 minutes! This is why I love the 8-bit Commodore so much.

“Your a real man now !” Gotta love that 80s video game grammar!

– Pros –
– Tight controls
– Amazing title screen music
– High score aspects

– Cons –
– No music during gameplay
– No distinguishable goal

– Single Credit Synopsis –
I would definitely play this game again, however before I do I will definitely have to research if there is anything else to do aside from shooting with the ship. If there isn’t anything online, I’ll have to sludge through and learn what gets the most bang for my buck points-wise.

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