(Largely edited 2002-08-19)
Mega Apocalypse for Commodore 64 was an amazing game. Released in 1987 by Martech. Programmed by Simon Nicol, music created by the great maestro Rob Hubbard.
I never thought that I'd say that there would be a game for a home computer that would be just as good as any arcade game. But, well, it is. Mega Apocalypse is an arcade game for Commodore 64.
It has everything a really good arcade shoot 'em up needs: Great music and graphics, deep and non-intrusive gameplay with simple objectives, and the flickering "attract mode" that makes you pour more coins into... umm, well, let's just push the Fire button to get more, instead.
Load it. And watch your machine turn into an arcade machine. This all in the infancy of the galaxy. Before the dark times. Before the Empire.
This game is addicting in its simplicity. Just shoot everything. The bigger planet you get to blast, the more points you will get. You control a little triangular ship that can be turned (there's a bouncing ball following the ship, but that's just an Arcade Feature® having nothing to do with the game). The game is very hypnotizing: The starfield behind the scene, the music, and the intense shooting...
The sound effects are very cool, a lot of sampled sounds were used - the gun sounds were taken from Star Wars (according to STIL). Music is, as mentioned, great, and easily one of Rob Hubbard's greatest works (he said that he liked the Crazy Comets version better, but my own opinion differs - CC sounds clinical and not as forceful compared to MA.)
If I ever get a MAME/MESS box, i'll make the controllers out of TAC-2s. No doubt.