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SKTTR · 6th June 2009

Uridium
(C) 1986 Graftgold / Hewson
Game by Andrew Braybrook. Music by Steve Turner.

Uridum is a horizontal hardcore shoot'em up classic. When originally released in 1986 for the Commodore 64 only the arcade machines had comparable graphics and sounds. Smooth and superfast scrolling to the left and right, great animations of the players Manta Fighter, and cool shadow and explosion effects were the technical feats of Uridium. But not only the techs were awesome, the gameplay was different from all the other shooters too. 15 Super Dreadnaughts, big space ships that travel through space, steal resources and metals from planets to supply their greedy evil minions. You, as the lone hero, are the only hope for your home planet. And as such, you're directly teleported to the first Super Dreadnaught. Shoot the defenses of the ships and land on the surface to set a self-destruction bomb. That's it! 100% action.

This game reminds me a bit of Star Wars, particularly the Death Star sequence of that movie. You fly closely above the Super Dreadnaughts surfaces, trying to avoid obstacles like antennas and walls that stick out of the big ships. Blasting away destroyable objects on the surface and different fighters that always come in armadas of various set-ups gives you points. If you destroy every fighter that's in a convoy you get a bonus. If you're flying too long in the same area the dreadnaught will send an undestroyable homing mine out of these flashy coloured spots that are spread over each ship. In that case you're in for a short but very fast escape maneuver. The only things to help you out are the fluid controls of your ship, your laser beam and an alarm that rings when a new set of enemy fighters is incoming. It also makes a noise when it's safe to land. Your fighter can move at different speeds, it can turn back with a somersault and it can fly on the side if you hold down the fire button and move up or down, necessary in later stages, when you have to navigate carefully through narrow passages and also good for avoiding enemy fire.

So, you're blasting your way through enemy hordes, avoiding obstacles and then you get the message to "land now". At the end of each dreadnaught is a landing zone. It takes a little while to find out how the landing works as you have to fly from left to right and shouldn't miss the starting point. On top of that, the evil homing fighters now come after you, flying extremely fast and shooting out of all holes. When you landed succesfully you're in for a bonus round where you have to rack up many extra points in a simple reaction game. Each ship has more extra points to give away. Every 10.000 points you get an extra life. These are extremely needed as you start out with only 3 of them. There are no continues at all, no extra weapons or power-ups. It all depends on mastering your skills.

There are some options in this game. A 2-player mode (in where you take turns) with 1 or 2 Wiimotes, and a black&white mode (just like in Paradroid) for people that have problems with vibrant colors. You can also manually control the volume with one of the F-keys. And you have the Hall of Fame, a highscore top 10 for your initials.

Uridium is a tense game. It's very fast and you are likely to die every 5 or 10 seconds when first playing. It seems ridiculously hard in the beginning. Most of you will hate the game within the first minute and think it's a waste of 500 points. This game is for hardcore-highscore-hunter-shmup-fanatics only. It's nothing for your little brother and definately nothing you should show your mom. If you put yourself to the former group then you'll be in for a very challenging blast!

08/10 Audiovisuals - Shmups have come a very long way. Back in the day it was a 10/10 but nowadays we've seen it all (much better). Still, Uridium's own neat style remains good (even if the 15 levels don't look very different to each other) and its scrolling is as smooth as the best you can find on the NES, SNES and Turbografx, and on top of that it has a very memorable title track and very good sound effects.

09/10 Gameplay - I wonder why there never was a 2D-shmup that build upon the innovative features of Uridium. So, up to this day its pretty unique and still feels as smooth as it can get. One of those games where you and your friends battle it out for just who's the better person.

09/10 Overall - It's the only shmup that I've downloaded on the Virtual Console. That says it all! A definite classic that needs a place in every good Commodore 64 collection. It was C64 game of the year '86 and scored 94% in Zzap magazine.

SCORE: 26/30 EVERGREEN

Andrew Braybrook C64 History:

1985 Port: Lunattack
1985 - Gribbly's Day Out
1985 - Paradroid
1986 Remake: Gribbly's Special Day Out
1986 - Uridium
1986 Remake: Paradroid - Competition Edition
1986 - Alleykat
1986 Remake: Paradroid - Metal Edition
1986 Remake: Paradroid+Uridium
1987 - Morpheus
1988 - Intensity
1988 - Magnetron

More info:

Uridium - Original Title Track by Steve Turner in mp3-format.
Uridium - Walkthrough video on YouTube.
Uridium - Fansite made by TEMPE.
Uridium - Scans of review in ZZap! 64 magazine March '86 Page 1 Page 2
Uridium - Music: Jason and Emma - Uridium (One For The Boss Mix)
Uridium - Music: Boz - Uridium
Uridium - Music: Doron Deutsch - Uridium (Inner Space)
Uridium - Music: Dees - Uridium (Little Green Alien Remix)
Uridium - Music: BBC Micro - Uridium

6th June 2009	#9
SKTTR Ludwig von Koopa Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 5,251	Uridium (C) 1986 Graftgold / Hewson Game by Andrew Braybrook. Music by Steve Turner. Uridum is a horizontal hardcore shoot'em up classic. When originally released in 1986 for the Commodore 64 only the arcade machines had comparable graphics and sounds. Smooth and superfast scrolling to the left and right, great animations of the players Manta Fighter, and cool shadow and explosion effects were the technical feats of Uridium. But not only the techs were awesome, the gameplay was different from all the other shooters too. 15 Super Dreadnaughts, big space ships that travel through space, steal resources and metals from planets to supply their greedy evil minions. You, as the lone hero, are the only hope for your home planet. And as such, you're directly teleported to the first Super Dreadnaught. Shoot the defenses of the ships and land on the surface to set a self-destruction bomb. That's it! 100% action. This game reminds me a bit of Star Wars, particularly the Death Star sequence of that movie. You fly closely above the Super Dreadnaughts surfaces, trying to avoid obstacles like antennas and walls that stick out of the big ships. Blasting away destroyable objects on the surface and different fighters that always come in armadas of various set-ups gives you points. If you destroy every fighter that's in a convoy you get a bonus. If you're flying too long in the same area the dreadnaught will send an undestroyable homing mine out of these flashy coloured spots that are spread over each ship. In that case you're in for a short but very fast escape maneuver. The only things to help you out are the fluid controls of your ship, your laser beam and an alarm that rings when a new set of enemy fighters is incoming. It also makes a noise when it's safe to land. Your fighter can move at different speeds, it can turn back with a somersault and it can fly on the side if you hold down the fire button and move up or down, necessary in later stages, when you have to navigate carefully through narrow passages and also good for avoiding enemy fire. So, you're blasting your way through enemy hordes, avoiding obstacles and then you get the message to "land now". At the end of each dreadnaught is a landing zone. It takes a little while to find out how the landing works as you have to fly from left to right and shouldn't miss the starting point. On top of that, the evil homing fighters now come after you, flying extremely fast and shooting out of all holes. When you landed succesfully you're in for a bonus round where you have to rack up many extra points in a simple reaction game. Each ship has more extra points to give away. Every 10.000 points you get an extra life. These are extremely needed as you start out with only 3 of them. There are no continues at all, no extra weapons or power-ups. It all depends on mastering your skills. There are some options in this game. A 2-player mode (in where you take turns) with 1 or 2 Wiimotes, and a black&white mode (just like in Paradroid) for people that have problems with vibrant colors. You can also manually control the volume with one of the F-keys. And you have the Hall of Fame, a highscore top 10 for your initials. Uridium is a tense game. It's very fast and you are likely to die every 5 or 10 seconds when first playing. It seems ridiculously hard in the beginning. Most of you will hate the game within the first minute and think it's a waste of 500 points. This game is for hardcore-highscore-hunter-shmup-fanatics only. It's nothing for your little brother and definately nothing you should show your mom. If you put yourself to the former group then you'll be in for a very challenging blast! 08/10 Audiovisuals - Shmups have come a very long way. Back in the day it was a 10/10 but nowadays we've seen it all (much better). Still, Uridium's own neat style remains good (even if the 15 levels don't look very different to each other) and its scrolling is as smooth as the best you can find on the NES, SNES and Turbografx, and on top of that it has a very memorable title track and very good sound effects. 09/10 Gameplay - I wonder why there never was a 2D-shmup that build upon the innovative features of Uridium. So, up to this day its pretty unique and still feels as smooth as it can get. One of those games where you and your friends battle it out for just who's the better person. 09/10 Overall - It's the only shmup that I've downloaded on the Virtual Console. That says it all! A definite classic that needs a place in every good Commodore 64 collection. It was C64 game of the year '86 and scored 94% in Zzap magazine. SCORE: 26/30 EVERGREEN Andrew Braybrook C64 History: 1985 Port: Lunattack 1985 - Gribbly's Day Out 1985 - Paradroid 1986 Remake: Gribbly's Special Day Out 1986 - Uridium 1986 Remake: Paradroid - Competition Edition 1986 - Alleykat 1986 Remake: Paradroid - Metal Edition 1986 Remake: Paradroid+Uridium 1987 - Morpheus 1988 - Intensity 1988 - Magnetron More info: Uridium - Original Title Track by Steve Turner in mp3-format. Uridium - Walkthrough video on YouTube. Uridium - Fansite made by TEMPE. Uridium - Scans of review in ZZap! 64 magazine March '86 Page 1 Page 2 Uridium - Music: Jason and Emma - Uridium (One For The Boss Mix) Uridium - Music: Boz - Uridium Uridium - Music: Doron Deutsch - Uridium (Inner Space) Uridium - Music: Dees - Uridium (Little Green Alien Remix) Uridium - Music: BBC Micro - Uridium Last edited by SKTTR; 7th June 2009 at 01:33 AM.