Goldrunner
Author
ST Graveyard has written 62 additional reviews
- Son Shu Shi March 21, 2021
- Live And Let Die January 13, 2019
- Lethal Weapon December 28, 2018
- Frogs December 4, 2018
- Manic Miner November 6, 2018
- Spy Who Loved Me, The August 18, 2018
- Licence to Kill August 16, 2018
- Parasol Stars August 14, 2018
- Anarcho Ride August 7, 2018
- Crash Time Plumber July 1, 2018
- Escape 2042 - The Truth Defender June 23, 2018
- Ozone May 28, 2018
- Supa Zazai Da January 21, 2018
- Fascination January 8, 2018
- Super Stario Land January 4, 2018
- Titus The Fox - To Marrakech and Back December 18, 2017
- Blues Brothers, The November 17, 2017
- Epic November 13, 2017
- Arachnophobia October 22, 2017
- Crapman March 5, 2005
- Driventure December 8, 2004
- Bold October 12, 2004
- Battle Zone July 20, 2003
- Terminator 2 - Judgment Day May 23, 2003
- Joust March 15, 2003
- Weird Dreams February 25, 2003
- GodPey December 28, 2002
- Superfly December 15, 2002
- Karate Kid Part 2 December 8, 2002
- Xenon November 15, 2002
- Pang November 6, 2002
- Great Giana Sisters, The August 13, 2002
- Team Yankee August 3, 2002
- Spindizzy Worlds July 16, 2002
- Leisure Suit Larry 1 - In the Land of the Lounge Lizards July 6, 2002
- Voyageurs Du Temps, Les - La Menace June 8, 2002
- Bomb Jack May 30, 2002
- Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker May 22, 2002
- Robocop May 14, 2002
- Disc April 27, 2002
- Wings of Death April 4, 2002
- Beyond the Ice Palace March 31, 2002
- Zool January 27, 2002
- Super Cars II January 18, 2002
- Addams Family, The December 30, 2001
- Battlehawks 1942 December 28, 2001
- Arkanoid 2 - Revenge of Doh December 23, 2001
- Vroom December 14, 2001
- Crazy Cars 3 November 27, 2001
- Crystal Castles November 20, 2001
- Buggy Boy November 13, 2001
- Turrican II - The Final Fight November 4, 2001
- Return to Genesis November 3, 2001
- IK+ August 30, 2001
- Ikari Warriors August 8, 2001
- Arkanoid August 6, 2001
- Fire and Ice August 1, 2001
- Super Cycle July 8, 2001
- Star Wars July 2, 2001
- Ork June 27, 2001
- Barbarian - The Ultimate Warrior June 18, 2001
- Xenon 2 - Megablast June 17, 2001
AL Mobile
Did you know Atari Legend is fully responsive and mobile ready? You want this site to behave like an app on your phone or tablet? Simply open the site in your favorite browser and look for the 'Add to homescreen' button. In Safari on IOS, first press the 'share' icon, then the "Add to home screen" pop-up appears. In Chrome on Android, you press the button at the top right, and select 'add to homescreen'. Once you have done this, the famous Atari bee fits nicely on your homescreen and you can enjoy AL with the tap of a finger.
Written by ST Graveyard
November 1, 2001
Watch out for those statues...Contact with them is fatal!
Incoming! Incoming! Enemy fire actually follows you until it vanishes of the screen!
The bonus round for level 1. Here the game is turned into the classic shoot 'em up.
Now this really freaks me out!
Comments
One of the first ever released vertical shoot 'em up scrollers for the Atari ST, Goldrunner is known for its ultra fast action and slick presentation. And strangely, after this release, no other game ever managed to do the scrolling as well as in Goldrunner. The game was programmed by Pete Lyon and Steve Bak, who called themselves "The Dream Team", and it shows. Responsible for other classics such as "Leatherneck" and "Return to Genesis", the latter being a horizontal shooter of the same caliber.
Graphics
This game features some awesome graphics and animation. First of, the landscapes are nicely detailed. Everything runs very fast and smoothly. And take a closer look at the goldrunner itself, the way the ship loops when you change direction is just freakin' cool!
Sound
A great soundtrack from Rob Hubbard. You just gotta love his stuff. He made the soundtracks for loads of games on the Commodor 64 before entering the 16 bit era. Other ST soundtracks he's responsible for are the ones for "Warhawk", "Thrust" and "Thundercats". The game also features some sampled speech. It all sounds terrific!
Gameplay
Goldrunner isn't just your regular shooter. What distinguishes this game is the fact that you have total freedom in a level. You can finish a level the normal way (flying upwards), but at any time, you can turn back to the beginning and beyond. You can even finish a level in the opposite direction.
So what exactly is your mission? Well, the world of "Goldrunner" is divided into rings (levels). You have to destroy as much of the landscape as possible, buildings being your primary objective. Once you have demolished everything, and depleted the ring of its energy, a gate will open in one of the buildings and you can continue to the next level. But beware, there is a lot of enemy activity. Try and avoid it at any cost, cause if you get hit more then 5 times, you'll lose a spacecraft and have to start all over!
Your ship is equipped with 2 laser cannons. The more energy you have, the better they work. So make sure you don't get hit to much and keep your energy level up. You can also activate your booster to make your ship go even faster. The landscape flies by at the speed of light. It looks really cool, but be careful for higher buildings!
Conclusion
Goldrunner is a great game. It's fast and furious. You should definitely give it a try. To put it in Lorenzo's words...An oldie, but a goldie (no pun intended).
Score
- Graphics: 8
- Sound: 9
- Gameplay: 9
- Overall: 8
Zone Warrior
February 12, 2023 by AtariCrypt
Once again, pesky aliens are giving us Earthlings lots of grief. We previously fought them off but they managed to pinch a time machine so are using that to alter history and wreak havoc by taking crucial hostages from each period in an attempt to halt their influence. From the invention of the wheel in prehistoric times to England's King Arthur uniting Britain! And where would any of us be today without Japan and its technical wizardry? Yep, we cannot allow this - the fight is on!
Son Shu Shi
March 21, 2021 by ST Graveyard
What an accomplishment this game is. Created with such a small team, the result is really amazing. The game oozes creative passion. While the gameplay is really well balanced, it is a tough cookie, very hard from time to time with its moments of sheer frustration. As of level 3, timing becomes key. You will need to practice and learn the levels to complete this game, there are so many bad guys on screen it sometimes gets a bit hard to take.
Blood Money
April 4, 2020 by Morcar
Graphically, it's also nice on the eyes with well-defined graphics and animation. You really get the feeling that the developers put some thought and love into the game. Remember what I said about the large levels? Well these are wonderful and are very different to each other, they also scroll fairly smooth in all four directions.