The two-man development team at UK-based game maker PomPom love classic, hands-on video games like R-Type and Defender. Their first effort, Space Tripper, has already been released for the PC, and now they’re giving Mac users an opportunity to give it a try as well. A downloadable demo is available from their Web site.
Space Tripper combines retro gameplay with a state-of-the-art 3D graphics engine for a really unique, fun, and challenging combination, without being overly complex or hard to figure out.
At its core, Space Tripper is a side-scrolling sprite based action game in which you control a spacecraft and fight against swarms of alien invaders. You can switch directions with the flick of a button and transform your spacecraft as well. The PomPom crew freely admits to being inspired by Williams’ Defender — arguably one of the all-time coin-op classics of the “golden age” of video games.
Space tripper combines 14 arenas across four different worlds, end of level bosses, weapons powerups, and more than 20 different enemies to go up against. The screenshot here doesn’t do the game justice, either — it sports 3D rendered environments with moving, articulated elements. It’s really cool to look at and fun to play too.
Best of all, it’s dirt-cheap. PomPom is selling it for US$12, and if you’re not sure if it’s worth the money, you can download the demo and give it a spin.
System requirements call for a G3 300MHz or better, 64MB RAM, 25MB available HD space, a fast OpenGL-compatible video card, and optional joystick. The game requires OS 9 or higher in order to run; PomPom notes that they’re working on making the game work on Mac OS X.