Dropzone
Dropzone is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed by Archer Maclean (under the name Arena Graphics) for the Atari 8-bit family and published in 1984 by U.S. Gold. It was ported to the Commodore 64, and later released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Game Boy Color. Maclean's first commercial game, Dropzone is similar in gameplay and style to the arcade game Defender and borrows many elements, including the same style of font, aliens, and title screen. Plot On the surface of Jupiter's moon, Io, a human scientific research base is under attack by aliens. The player dons a jetpack armed with a laser, a cloaking device and three smart bombs, to rescue the scientists and return them to the base. Gameplay The gameplay is in the style of Williams Electronics' Defender, with some influences from Scramble and Robotron: 2084. Players control the hero trying to rescue the scientists on a horizontally-scrolling game field. Players must elude or engage various aliens—some slow, others faster—and return the scientists to the base's eponymous dropzone. The aliens capture scientists walking along the ground. The player must shoot the enemy aliens and catch the falling scientists. Sometimes the aliens will carry