Non-Speccy Homebrew Games #1

White Light (2017)
By: Sarah Walker Genre: Shooting Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: BBC Micro First Day Score: 45,270
Also Available For: Nothing

Out of all the old 8-bit home micro computers that were popular here in the UK in the 80's, the good old Speccy definitely seems, to me at least, to be the one with the most active homebrew gaming scene. That's not to say the others have been totally abandoned though, as demonstrated by this title that was brought to my attention... I was going to say recently but it was actually a couple of years ago now, maybe even more. Oops! Oh well, I guess no one would ever accuse me of keeping up with the times, but it has remained in my thoughts and now I've finally gotten around to having a proper look at it. As you can probably see it's called White Light and it's a brand new shoot 'em up for the BBC Micro, and it comes to us on the back of a bewildering development time that has spanned nine years. By jingo, now that's a labour of love if I ever saw one! Was it worth the wait for those who knew about it?

As the eagle-eyed among you may have spotted already, White Light was inspired by one of the few BBC Micro games I have gotten around to reviewing here - Fire Track, a decent vertical shooter released by Aardvark Software back in the late 80's - and is, I believe, intended as an unofficial sequel. It will probably not surprise you too much to learn, therefore, that it is also a vertical scroller, and one in the same vein too, no less. The title comes from the name for 'the greatest known source of energy' which has been half-inched by a felonious bunch of industrial pirates. Your mission? Deal the buffoons a healthy dose of flaming death and retrieve the titular device/substance (or whatever form it takes). Sounds like a plan to me! Luckily, you have been given a decent little fighter craft (which is probably a secret prototype as is usually the case) with which to do so. The bad news? There are some fourteen hefty stages to get through first - considerably more than there were in Fire Track itself no less!

All of them are of course teeming with those pesky pirates too, who are surprisingly numerous. They pilot a variety of small craft which move around and attack differently depending on the type, and some take more hits to destroy than others. Your ship is also small and comes with a pea-shooter cannon and a small stock of smart bombs, but both can be powered-up by collecting one of the three relevant icons. One gives you extra bombs while the other two boost your cannon to twin, triple, or quadruple shots, either in forward or 'spread' configurations depending on which colour icon you go for. The source of the power-ups is a particular 'building' on the landscape which is either floaty stuff in space (see first screenshot) or the ground on surface-based stages (see second screenshot, above). In either case there are usually numerous gun turrets dotted around in addition to normal buildings and other bits and pieces you can shoot for bonus points, and the end of stage bosses are also ground-based.

These usually consist of a larger building or big jumble of similar stuff with numerous guns on them. Destroy these and you get a tally of the enemies/buildings you have taken out and it's on to the next stage. It's simple stuff really, as most shooters on the 8-bit home micros were. The first stage is more of an introduction, featuring a few groups of enemies descending down the screen and nothing more. From the second stage they start shooting back and from the third their numbers start increasing quite dramatically, as well as the number and accuracy of the bullets they fire. It isn't long before things get pretty hectic and you'll have to be an ace pilot to get through all fourteen stages. Luckily, the controls are pretty good and when you lose a life you'll restart straight away from the same point. You only lose one power-level on your cannon too, and the game will even use a free smart bomb automatically when you resume play so you don't run into any stragglers. It's all reasonably fair for a shmup!

My only complaint really is that the enemy bullets can be hard to see when flying over scenery but that's literally it; everything else about the game is top-notch. Despite the number of stages, they all have a unique look and the scenery is very detailed. The scrolling is smooth too, and there are four nice tunes in addition to the arcadey effects to keep your ears company as you play. Much like Fire Track, it's quite similar to Star Force to play, and it also reminded me of Aleste a little (mainly the bosses), and there's even a hint of Gunhed/Super Star Soldier here and there. Wherever inspiration might have come from though, one thing's for sure - White Light is a cracking game! Not only is it technically outstanding but it's also one of those games that takes you back in time a little too. Maybe it was just the mood I was in at the time but it's a really nice game however it makes you feel. If you're a BBC fan you've almost certainly got a copy already but any other retro shmup fans really should give it a try too.

RKS Score: 9/10

Gameplay Video: If you want to learn more about this stonking game or download a free rom file for emulator use, click here. There were physical copies of the game available too - if there are still any left, you should also be able to get them there if you so desire. In the meantime, here's a trailer for the game: