Psytronik Software has just released the brilliant Lazer Zone tribute ‘Sheepoid’, by Richard Bayliss. What started out as a quick tribute, Richard was encouraged to make various fixes and tweaks to the game and present it at the recent Retrovision event in Oxford as a competition title for people to compete against on. Richard is a massive fan of Jeff Minter’s work on the Vic 20 and C64, with Lazer Zone being one of his particular favourites. Richard had hoped to show Jeff his work at Retrovision this year, but unfortunately Jeff was away this time round.
The game’s story goes as follows:
“A nightmare has just begun! The Neon Vortex is under attack from strange and bizarre psychedelic experiences from outer space! We have transported two micro sheep to fight against the Neon Vortex invaders. Your sheep are also armed with a deadly SMART BOMB that will destroy everthing on the screen. Use these wisely as your sheep can only carry one smart bomb per level. ou must also rescue baby sheep trapped in the vortex, if you shoot them you will lose 1000 points from your score. Be careful when using the SMART BOMB as this will also destroy any baby sheep on the screen!”
Work was carried out over the space of a few months with various bits of playtesting by myself, Vinny Mainolfi and Jason Mackenzie with many suggestions being made. Overall, Richard has done a superb job and the game is now available to buy from Psytronik Software.
The game comes in disk and tape flavours, as well as digital download options. The inlay is superb and colourful, with a great render. The cover has been carefully re-created by the one and only STE’86 for the loading screen, giving the tape version a real classic budget title feel. The initial preview had a slight flaw in it, which has been resolved just in time for the release.
If you liked the original Lazer Zone by Jeff Minter then you will enjoy Sheepoid and is well worth checking out! See the links below for more details:
