Phobia

Phobia

Game No.	489
Voting	7.40 points, 15 votes
Developer	Antony Crowther, David Bishop, John Cook
Company	Image Works
Publisher	Mirrorsoft
Musician	Ken Lagace, Sid Meyer
HVSC-File	/MUSICIANS/C/Crowther_Antony/Phobia.sid
Release	1989
Platform	C64
Genre	Shoot'em Up
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language

Description[edit | edit source]

The Phobos system

Once again, a princess has to be rescued. The evil Lord Phobos has kidnapped the daughter of the galactic president and is holding her prisoner on the sun. To get there, several planets must be destroyed, each representing a different kind of nightmare.

Phobia is a horizontally scrolling shoot'em'up in the style of Katakis or Armalyte. The goal is to fight your way through at least 9 planets of the Phobos system, destroying them by defeating the boss to gain access to the planet's interior. After you have defeated the boss, a second level follows in which you fly through the interior of the planet to retrieve a shield fragment at the end. Nine such fragments are necessary to protect the ship and allow an attack on the sun itself.

Lord Phobos has deployed other defensive systems, such as its dreaded Solar Troops, which are on the move at the other end of the star system, trying to block the routes to Phobos by erecting light barriers between the planets, which destroy any ship that tries to break through at light speed. The only option is to sacrifice a ship or a space pod grabbed from a blinking moon. These containers (space pods) can also generate higher firepower if you collect enough energy (power-ups). In some cases, further enemy attack waves must be defeated on the flights between the planets.

The enemies and graphics of each planet are designed according to a specific scary theme. For example, countless spiders cavort in the starting level of the planet Arachno, while fire and flames are the dominant theme on the planet Pyro. On each planet, the key generators must be shot down to successfully complete the level. If this does not succeed, the level must be played again.

Design[edit | edit source]

... Planet Arachno ...

... In-between levels ...

The game graphics of Phobia are very colourful. Many enemies await in each level and also a large part of the background graphics can and must be shot down in parts. The title track is impressive due to the use of digital drums and voice output. The levels offer a high degree of variety due to the fact that each planet is designed according to a theme from the area of dread (e.g. Planet Pyro = fire, Planet Arachno = spiders... or the dentist), although the gameplay is quite similar. Parallax scrolling is partly used in the levels. Despite the large number of objects, the game runs smoothly; however, because character graphics are also moved alongside sprites, the graphics sometimes contain blocky edges. The difficulty level is very high.

Hints[edit | edit source]

Game Controls

The game is controlled exclusively by joystick. For a two-player game, press the joystick to the right until the second scoreboard is activated. If two players are involved, you need two joysticks.

Commodore key = pause (fire button for restart)
RUN/STOP button = game stop

The function for splitting the ship is activated via the SPACE key or the fire button on the second joystick.
If you are playing the game with a teammate, then a special energy exchange weapon system can be made use of. By firing at the second player's ship, you give it a special energy boost: the ship changes colour as it absorbs the energy. The next time the ship thus charged fires, it creates devastating destruction in direct proportion to the energy loaded.
When playing in a solo match, a binary doppelganger loop can be used instead: The ship can double, which increases the firepower (but also the risk of a hit ...).

Solution[edit | edit source]

Cheats[edit | edit source]

With the original version on diskette, the individual levels can be viewed by changing their file names to the name of the initial level. (With original floppy disks, this always involves a small but nevertheless present risk).
The version of "Remember" (includes disk and tape version) offers 7 different cheat modes, a storable highscore list, some fixes and the manual.
The version of "Nostalgia" (disc version, also works with 1571/81/CMD-FD/CMD-HD drives) offers 14 different cheat modes, a storable highscore list, some fixes and the manual.

Voting[edit | edit source]

Voting of the C64-Wiki-User (10=the best vote):
7.40 points at 15 votes (rank 304). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	7	17. July 2012 - "text-note" 1084 downs
Lemon64	7.3	17. July 2012 - 36 votes
ASM	10/12	Issue 10/89
Powerplay	58%	Issue 8/89
ZZap64	92%	Issue 7/89