This is a generic arcade-style top-down view air-combat game. It takes place in space where you fight weird aliens (hence the name 'Space Fighter'). You control the space ship at the bottom of the screen and rapidly fire projectiles at everything you see, dodging enemy fire, and picking up power-ups that drop randomly from destroyed enemy ships. Sadly this game does not utilize DirectX, or anything else that might take stress off the CPU, so it runs very slow. Also, on most machines, there is some annoying magenta shit that blinks infront of the images, due to the game's total lack of frame-buffering.

This was a game I made in my Computer Science 20 class of grade 11. It was not intended as an assignment or my final project any more than it was supposed to be original and exciting. I was just a way to waste time while I was stuck in class. My teacher passed me with an 80% because of this, even though I did not do a single assignment all year and had poor attendance. This game turned out to be, roughly, a 50-hour project, all class time.

· Download Space Fighter (spacef.zip)

Install Instructions: To install, download the ZIP file, using the link above, then unzip the files to wherever you want them.

The system file "MCI32.OCX" is required to play this game. If you don't have it, search for it on the internet and put it in your \Windows\System folder (This game obviously only supports Windows).

To control the ship, simply use the arrow keys to move, and the space bar to fire. Also, escape can be used to pause gameplay. The object of the game is to not die and to kill stuff while doing so. You get points when you kill enemies by shooting them. Ironically, and despite their name, points are pointless. When you kill enemies you may also find a power-up. To receive it's benefits, pick it up before it floats off the screen. When you kill enough enemies, the difficulty level increases and the enemies become more strong, abundant, and diverse. If, when you finally die, you have enough points the game will ask you to enter your name, and your score will be added to the other high scores.

In the Options menu, there are two options. The first is the starting difficulty level. You can chose to start at a higher level, providing you have completed that level recently. The second option allows you to turn the game music on or off... or it would if there was game music. I did not include the music because it literally makes the file size 50 times bigger.

Odd Kamikaze Thing - Whatever this thing is, it flys toward you in attempt to collide with your ship and damage it. It is the most common enemy in the game. If you avoid them, they do not circle back. They are relatively easy to destroy, as they have little armor, and tend to drift into your line of fire.

Super Aqua Cardboard Box - These tend to stay in a non-collision zone, far out in front of you. They shoot projectiles that are similar to the ones you can shoot. They can usually be avoided, but can be dangerous when they swarm. This type of enemy has a higher chance of dropping a power-up. They do not appear until level 2.

Death Star Rip-off - This is your most threatening enemy. It appears only after level 4. The Death Star Rip-off fires an accurate weapon that does twice the damage of any other. It has a great amount of armor and is invunerable to plasma damage. It drifts across the screen randomly and can even show up behind you. If you destroy the Death Star Rip-off in one difficulty level, it does not reappear until the next level. This enemy will almost always drop a power-up when destroyed.

Health - The function of this power-up is quite obvious. This gives you an extra two units of health. Why the hell did I name this 'Health'?! Space ships don't have 'Health'! I would have made much more sense had I called it 'Repair Ship' or 'Restore Shields'. And what the icon really should have been is a wrench or something. Oh well. What can I expect for going to class drunk?

Plasma Weapon Upgrade - Plasma Weapon Upgrade gives your weapon additional plasma damage. The plasma damage added is equal to that of your regular weapon. Just like every upgrade, the Plasma Weapon Upgrade can be stacked. One upgrade doubles your damage, two upgrades triples your damage and so on. However, if you take damage, be it from an Odd Kamikaze Thing or a Swingline Stapler, you lose all of this upgrade's benefits.

Energy Shield - The Energy Shield makes you completely invincible for the duration of the upgrade. You may ram into anything and everything with out taking any damage. Pay attention to the amount of energy your shield has left. When the shield's energy is depleted, you are instantly left as vunerable as ever. When you first start the game you are given taste of the shield, just to give you time to get ready for what's coming.