What is Sky Shadow?

Side-scroller; fly a spaceship on bombing raids over enemy territory, dodging and/or shooting enemy ships and collecting power-ups; land (carefully) on your own turf; repeat. Graphics and sound quite good, but silly. The most fun, when you can manage it, is cruising along with auto-strafe and invincibility.

Awards: MacWorld Game Hall of Fame, 5 Mice MacUser Magazine.

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Remember Defender, the old arcade game in which your beleaguered spaceship blasts its way over a moving landscape? Take that idea, design a ship and colorful landscape owing more to R. Crumb and Krazy Kat than to George Lucas, add a boxful of hysterical sounds, force players to learn to land their vehicle, throw it all into the blender, and you've got Sky Shadow.

The premise; The dreaded Razoropers have invaded your home town. You pilot a ship resembling a piece of ancient Revere Ware and have at enemy forces on the ground and in the air. You are supplied with unlimited missiles, 30 bombs, and a protective force field. You accumulate points most quickly by accurately bombing enemy targets. To refresh bombs and supplies and to repair the ship, you must land your craft at the airstrip, a skill difficult to master at slow speed and nearly impossible in Mega-Mode (double speed and higher point values). To overcome the difficulty of landing and other obstacles to success, you can pick up various tokens that provide safe landings, continuous firing of missiles (oh, my aching wrist!), additional smart bombs, repair kits, and temporary invulnerability to attack.

Warning: Sky Shadow is not the kind of game to be played quietly at the office. In this game, sound is everything. Important warnings and bonuses are prefaced with audible signals. As you blast away, you’ll want to hear everything from the pilot’s exuberant “yahoo!” that signals big points, to the whining cry of inadvertently slain compatriots. Grim perhaps, but a wonderful game nonetheless.

Breen, Christopher. (October 1990). Welltris, Mission Starlight, Sky Shadow. MacUser. (pgs. 82-83).

Download Sky Shadow for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

Compatibility notes

Architecture: 68k

Minimum requirements: System 6.0.2, b/w or 256 color, Mac OS 7 compatible, later OS versions not recommended.

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II