What is OIDS?

If you like arcade games, you'll love Oids. Oids combines futuristic action with adrenaline - pumping challenges. Oids is a unique mixture of two classic arcade games, Lunar Lander and Choplifier. The goal is to rescue the enslaved Oids, a race of tiny creatures, from hostile space terrains that bristle with anti aircraft artillery, guided missiles, and other weapons.

As in Lunar Lander, you have an overview of your ship and its surroundings as you move through space. You use the keyboard or a joystick to maneuver the ship and to avoid crashing into planet surfaces where the Oids arc hidden. As you maneuver, you have to take gravity, acceleration, and velocity into account. The keyboard controls are confusing at first, but they soon become second nature. If you dislike the default controls, you can customize the configuration.

Once you're airborne, your ship flies over craggy landscapes covered with fortified enemy positions. Your foes attempt to down your spacecraft by hurling lethal projectiles. Your ship's shields can absorb a limited amount of this punishment while you respond to the attackers with rapid-fire photon guns and devastating bombs. You rescue Oids by blasting open factories nestled among the enemy outposts. The action here resembles that of Choplifter. Once freed, the Oids run amok on the planet surface, watting to climb aboard your ship when it lands. After you've touched down to pick up a full complement of eight passengers, you must return to the mothership to deposit the Oids and refuel your craft. After you've saved all the Oids, it's on to the next planet. A game takes less than 30 minutes to complete, but there's no time limit. Your mission is accomplished once you’ve cleared all the planets in a chosen galaxy.

Oids is one of the finest Mac arcade games ever. Although limited to 2 or 16 colors (depending on your Mac), the graphics are detailed and the animation superb, The package supplies 32 planets, but you can also design your own, using the built-in game editor. This game has lasting entertainment value.

Linzmayer, Owen W. (June 1991). Oids. MacUser. (pgs. 91-92).

Download OIDS for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II