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Salamander Clones and Ports (Salamander-likes)


Clones & Ports of Konami's Salamander



This article is concerned with clones and ports of Konami's Salamander coinop of 1986 that have appeared on Western home computer game machines.

The original Salamander coinop was programmed by Hiroyasu Machiguchi.

Salamander-likes are defined by me as stock-standard scrolling shoot 'em ups that usually feature weapon pick-ups and power-ups, levels to progress through, end-level bosses, and dynamic and/or destructibile terrain.

Salamander-likes are missing:


Salamander-likes can feature horizontal and/or vertical screen-scrolling.

The origin of Salamander is Konami's Gradius of 1984, of which Salamander is a simplified spin-off. 

Salamander-likes are some of the most playable and stylish shooters.

The article is only concerned with Salamander clones and ports that appeared on Western home computer game machines. The Salamander clones and ports are presented chronologically.

Salamander Clones


IO: Into Oblivion Commodore 64 1988


Kinetic Design released IO: Into Oblivion for the Commodore 64 in 1988. Named after the Jovian moon, IO is a difficult side-scrolling shooter that features some of the best graphics on the Commodore 64. IO is a single-player or 2-player alternating Salamander-like.


IO was programmed by Doug Hare, drawn by Bob Stevenson and composed by David Whittaker. IO's weapons system consists of smart bombs that can be shot for weapon upgrades and orbs that increase the ship's defense. The orbs can be manipulated into broad or concentrated fire. 

IO Bosses:


IO features multi-phase progressively-destructing bosses. There are also some progressively-destructing enemy waves.

Armalyte Commodore 64 1988: Delta 2



Cyberdyne Systems released Armalyte for the Commodore 64 in November of 1988. C64 Armalyte is much better than the 16 bit versions. Indeed, in regards to gameplay, graphics and technics C64 Armalyte is one of the best shooters in my entire treatment range. As with IO, don't pass over this one.

Armalyte was designed by Dan Phillips, programmed by Dan Phillips and John Kemp, drawn by Robin Levy and composed by Martin Walker.

Armalyte is the sequel to Delta of 1987, which was the sequel to Sanxion of 1986.

Armalyte bosses:


Menace Amiga 1988: Destroy Planet Draconia


DMA Design release Menace for the Amiga in 1988. Menace is the prequel to Bloody Money of 1989.


Menace was programmed by Dave Jones, drawn by Anthony Smith and composed by David Whittaker.

Menace Weapons Systems: Cannon, Laser, Outrider Droid (max 2), Speed Up, Force Field, Shield Recovery.

Menace Commodore 64 1989


Psyclapse ported DMA Design's Amiga version of Menace to the Commodore 64 in 1989. C64 Menace was programmed by Greg Duddle, drawn by James McDermott and composed by David Whittaker.


Silkworm Amiga 1989: Better than the Arcade Version



Random Access released Silkworm on the Amiga in 1989. Amiga Silkworm was programmed by Ronald Pieket Weeserik and drawn by Ned Langman. Silkworm is a raw and gritty horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up that runs at 50 FPS. Silkworm is the predecessor of SWIV.

Amiga Silkworm is better than the Tecmo arcade version of 1988. What an awesome shooter.

Silkworm Commodore 64 1989


Warren Mills of Random Access ported Silkworm to the C64 in 1989 from the Amiga version of 1989. C64 Silkworm was drawn by Ned Langman.


Armalyte Amiga 1991: The Final Run (Delta 2)


Arc Developments remade C64 Armalyte of 1988 for the Amiga in 1991 as Armalyte: The Final Run. Amiga Armalyte is notable for its extreme trial-and-error difficulty. You will be doing well to survive the first horizontal wave let alone the first vertical wave. In addition, collision detection is off. The music is good but the sound effects are awful.


Amiga Armalyte was programmed by Derrick Owens.

Catalypse Commodore 64 1992


Catalypse is a high-quality horizontally-scrolling shooter coded by Andrea Pompili of Genias for the C64 in 1992. In the infographic below, the top-left image shows max firepower and the other images show the Catalypse bosses.


Catalypse bosses:


Catalypse was coded in CHAMP assembly language. Its backgrounds were drawn in the character set editor of the Shoot 'Em Up Construction Kit developed by Sensible Software in 1987. Music composed by Michael Tschögl.

Enforcer Commodore 64 1992


Enforcer: Fullmetal Megablaster is an exceedingly slick horizontally-scrolling shooter coded by Manfred Trenz aka The Master in 1992 for the Commodore 64. And Trenz is indeed a master of shoot 'em ups. Enforcer pushes the C64 sprite-count to the limit; its music is also king-tier. What an awesome shooter.


Enforcer bosses:


Salamander Ports


Salamander Commodore 64 1988


Here we have Imagine Software's 1988 Commodore 64 port of Konami's 1986 Salamander coinop.


Coded by Peter Baron, what we have here is smooth horizontal and vertical scrolling, high sprite-count (33 on-screen objects), super-fast sprite-shifting and slick sprite-scaling powered by a 6510 clocked at about 1 MHz, with 64 kbytes of RAM. And while there is some slowdown when the screen gets busy Salamander on the C64 was nevertheless one of the most impressive shooters of the 80s. The main thing is: I never lost a life due to slowdown.

The only problem is that C64 Salamander is too short and too easy.

The ZX Spectrum version coded by Andrew Glaister in 1988 is harder:


cf.


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