Zynaps

Zynaps is a horizontally scrolling space shoot ’em up from Hewson, designed by Dominic Robinson with music by Steve Turner. You pilot a lone starfighter through 14 levels of asteroid fields and alien installations, blasting waves of hostile alien attack formations at a relentless, fixed scrolling speed. Shot enemies drop power-ups that cycle through the available upgrades, letting you pick the one you need, much like in Gradius. Touching the scenery is fatal, and each stage ends with a boss that must be destroyed before the difficulty climbs again. Learning the attack patterns and keeping a well-armed ship alive is the key to progress. Originally released in 1987 on 8-bit computers, it became a CRASH Smash and was voted best shoot ’em up of the year by CRASH readers.

Amiga

Released in 1988, shortly after the Atari ST conversion, it was one of the first progressive shoot ’em ups on the 16-bit machines. Pete Lyon’s graphics, shared with the ST version, reach near coin-op quality in places, while the sound was enhanced to exploit the Amiga’s superior audio hardware. It runs on a standard 512K Amiga 500 and offers two-player alternating play. Gameplay stays faithful to the 8-bit originals, with the same structure and pace, which some critics found unambitious, so the reception was cooler than for the 8-bit versions. Still, it remains a polished, fast and challenging blaster, ideal for fans of Salamander-style action who want a sharper-looking, better-sounding take on the Spectrum and Commodore 64 originals.