This scrolling arcade game was released by Firebird software for the ZX Spectrum in 1985.
In the tried and tested arcade shoot em up tradition it was a right to left horizontal scroller with waves upon waves of alien nasties to blow out of the sky.
At the beginning of the game your craft can only move up and down (as well as firing) - and the waves of aliens are pretty easy to dispose of.
You also had a limited shield to protect you - but too many hits by alien missiles or collisions with alien craft would cause your poor old Buccaneer to explode.
You also had a finite supply of fuel - so you had to destroy every alien nasty to complete the level. If you delayed too long then your fuel supply would be gone along with your plane.
Some levels removed your planes missiles - so you had to weave around frantically dodging the alien menace until you reached the end of that stage. At the beginning of the next level your missiles were restored. Hooray!
From time to time you could also dock with a mothership/supply ship type craft. This would replenish you shields and fuel making your fight against the alien oppressors that little bit easier.
The background scrolling was decent enough, with the hills on the horizon and clouds scrolling at different screens giving a nice enough parallax effect. With a little time and polish this is one arcade game that could have realised it's potential.
On Release:
This arcade game was hampered when it was released due to it's over use of colour which resulted in the dreaded attribute clash. Some of the sprites tended to flicker too. Still, for only £1.99 it was a decent enough slice of arcade pie that kept fans of scramble happy for 20 minutes.
The test of time:
Well Buccaneer still has an element of fun but really lacks overall polish. It can become repetetive quite quickly and to be honest there are better shoot em up style games for the ZX Spectrum - even those that were budget games.
Not bad and worth a go.
We recommend getting hold of the real Sinclair ZX Spectrum hardware, but if not then download a ZX Spectrum emulator and download Buccaneer. Alternatively you could try and play it online.
Please see our other ZX Spectrum retro game reviews - all links are listed in alphabetical order. Cheers guys.
GENRE: Arcade game
RELEASE DATE: 1985
RELEASED BY: Firebird Software
DEVELOPER(S): Peter Gough
PRICE: £1.99
Check out the parallax scrolling in this lesser known arcade game...
Classic Games and Arcade Games
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