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Sphera

Submitted by solaris104 on Fri, 2005-12-30 12:09. Game


Enigma Variations


Rob Holman


Ken Jarvis


Sean Conran


1990

sphera.dsk.zip (not yet approved)

One of the few (maybe only?) games to use Mode 2. A classic Space-Invaders inspired game which, at times, offered a significant challenge with the large colourful structures that your white, monochrome ship could get lost under while fighting the attacking foe.

In true arcade style, there was also a selection of giant guardians to fight at the end of the level.


Crash review, courtesy of worldofspectrum.org

Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

Sphera was one of the first games to come out on the SAM. Long before it’s release we were treated to beautiful mode 4 graphics depicting the Mega-Enemies and some technical stuff all about how it had lots of layers of parallax and lovely sound. So we all had bated breath (from reading YS instead of cleaning our teeth - tsk!) by the time the game arrived. And it turned out to be an utter turkey.

The game was a basic vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up. With pretty good mode 2 graphics during the normal levels, and great mode 4 graphics upon meeting the Boss Creatures. Now, the problem with mode 2 is that you’re only allowed 2 colours per 8 pixel long line (horizontally) so the enemies and your craft were all white and boring, making them stand out from the nice background like a sore thumb.

Another feature making it difficult was that virtually (if not completely) all the ‘background’ passed OVER you and the enemies, making it impossible to see them and their bullets (which were disproportionatley massive) as they streaked towards you intent on draining your shields, or killing you.

And since both you and the enemies go pretty fast you spend most of your time dying and re-starting the level, ack!

But if you are after a shoot ‘em up with PLENTY of challenge, then you could do worse, seeing as it’s ever so cheap now. But you could do better (not sure how, but at a guess it’d probably involve writing something in BASIC).

A LOT better.

AreaScoreComment
Graphics78%Some are great, the rest are damn awful.
Addictivity47%Say goodbye to disk-drive, Mr Sphera, say hello to bin.
Instant Appeal65%Looks nice, with a nice intro screen. Plays terribly.
Sound83%Good spot FX, and a great, if short, intro tune by Sean Conran.
Overall55%Avoid! Avoid more avidly than you would a highly suspicious looking rat emerging from a door with a yellow cross on it.



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re: Sphera

Submitted by samsneed4speed on Fri, 2006-03-24 12:42.

Sphera could have been much better than this, its a fun game to play and everything but it looks and sounds poor, Whenever I load it up my mates take the piss out me for playing it - I thought Xenon on the Speccy was better, and if you play the Fade on FRED 42, you’ll realise that it aint rocket science to work out that the Sam is not to be compared to a Spectrum - this game would make you think otherwise.

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mode2 games

Submitted by nitrofurano on Sun, 2006-04-02 20:30.

Is this game the only mode2 game available on SamCoupé?
Some people may think this mode is very limited, but when we see games on MSX1 like The Castle or Rambo (possible to be remade on Sam using mode2, as these games are not msx1 hardware-sprite dependant), we can see the potential this screen mode can provide

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Sphera - Missed Opportunity?

Submitted by Warren Lee on Thu, 2010-12-09 13:52.

I recently picked up a copy of this on ebay, as I’d always wanted to try it out. I don’t think it’s as bad as the review above makes out, but I can see where the frustration and disappointment came from, when expecting something great.

It’s a strange game, as it’s both simultaneously frustrating to play(nearly impossible to avoid enemies and enemy fire, scrolling portions that completely obscure what’s happening, etc) and very impressive in terms of what it managed to do on the SAM. The scrolling areas are genuinely cool to look at.

It’s a shame the ships are black and white, but even so, the sheer amount going on, is pretty damn amazing. Then it goes and ruins it with some poorly done game-play elements.

If this had been side scrolling, so that the player had time to breath as things happened, it would’ve made a big difference. It’s a shame, as it’s one-half brilliant tech-demo of what the SAM could do when pushed, and one-half poorly conceived shooter. It really does make you wonder what could’ve been achieved if the actual game-play had a bit more thought put into it.

R-Type this isn’t, but could it have been the SAM’s equivalent with some proper thought?

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I though this game was

Submitted by Samuser1975 on Sat, 2015-05-09 14:59.

I though this game was underrated myself I much prefered it to Parallax.

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