Memorable Adverts / Flyers #3

Cybernoid by Raffaele Cecco / Hewson Consultants (1987) - Various Formats

If you were the owner of an 8-bit home computer here in the UK during the mid-80's, particularly a Spectrum, it can't have been long before you played one of Raffaele Cecco's games. He didn't develop many but the ones he did bestow upon us were warmly received, at least partially on account of the splendid colourful graphics he squeezed out of the humble Speccy. One of the most celebrated of his games was Cybernoid, a flick-screen shooter which featured swarms of irritating aliens as well as plenty of obstacles to test your timing as well as your trigger finger.

Why is it memorable?
Like most of the best adverts of the day it was hand-drawn. Sadly I don't know the name of the talented artist in question but it was certainly an eye-catching piece of work, arguably even more so the game itself or the many glowing reviews it received in magazines of the day (a whopping 96% in Crash!). As with many other adverts around that time (such as Driller which I looked at previously), it's drawn in a wonderful 70's sci-fi style and shows a cool-looking red spacecraft zooming over an alien installation of some kind towards the 'camera', an explosion behind it obscuring the starry background. Even the 'futuristic' font was cool. It made you want to get stuck in straight away which is exactly what it any good advert should do.

But is the game actually any good?
Hmm, this is actually a tough question to answer. It was technically good, I don't think many 8-bit gamers of the day would argue that point. The foreground graphics were superb, very bright and distinctive, and there were tons of multi coloured sprites zipping about most of the screens as well, not to mention the cool twinkly missiles and explosions and stuff. It was also really tough though - too tough for many with some screens teeth-gnashingly hard to pass. It was still enjoyable to play though, in a sadistic, ultra-challenging kind of way. Besides, no matter how much trouble we might've had with it, I bet all of us still owned it!

Click here for the full review of Cybernoid in all its glory :)