Raptor: Call of the Shadows (1994 Classic Edition)

[h1] Just play the new 2015 version which have better controller support. [/h1]

Raptor: Call of Shadows is a cult classic shoot 'em up from the late DOS days. It's a quality "Euro shmup" even though it was developed in the USA, it just has a lot of traits of what people have posthumously called Euro shmups, like a fairly deep upgrade system. In fact, like most Euro shumps with upgrade systems, knowing what to upgrade and when is key to getting through the game. There's a nice risk/reward system in place as you can avoid enemies fairly well, but the more enemies you shoot the more money you make for the shop in-between levels, and you can replenish your health with that money. It's a good game if you like the type with nice music. There have been a lot of commercially versions released on PC over the years, here's the breakdown: 1994 - Original DOS version 2010 - GOG version, which is the 1994 original via DOSBox (no longer for sale) 2014 - Steam version, same as above 2015 - A different Steam version called "2015 edition" which has achievements and texture smoothing 2018 - Zoom Platform version, same as the 2010 GOG and original 2014 Steam versions It's nice to have achievements in the 2015 version, but the texture smoothing is ugly (but optional) and it only plays at 24fps. It also has a slightly remastered soundtrack, which I think is okay. The DOSBox version has a lot of nice options in DOSBox itself, like 5x upscaling, aspect ratio lock, double buffering, and more. But it controls a little more sluggishly than the 2015 version. Considering they both go on sale for 50 cents each, get 'em both!

I'm finally old enough to purchase the full version. Beat the crap out of the shareware version when I was a lad.

If you want to play this game, you have a choice between this (The original) or the 2015 version. You would think the 2015 version is automatically better, but a lot of the design choices are perplexingly terrible. This game runs in Dosbox so it isn't as smooth on modern consoles. You also don't have the option to remap the controls. This game never crashed on me, though, and the 2015 version did. This version is slightly harder because the emulation has a delay on the controls and the game itself seems to be running a little bit faster. The 2015 version has Steam achievements, but a few of them are terribly buggy and broken so they're worth skipping. Also, the saving in this version is better in the 2015 version. In this game you just have one legacy save file that you can overwrite. The 2015 version, for some odd reason, gives you unlimited saves but doesn't timestamp them or even put them in order. This means that every time I wanted to save in that game I had to go into the menu and painstakingly delete my other previous saves while making sure I didn't forget to save on that playthrough to avoid accidentally deleting all of my progress. It's really kind of a toss up. I'd say the 2015 version edges this one out, but they both cost less than a dollar and this one has things that are just better than that version.

Here's a tip: Press backspace during a mission to get full health and a free Death Ray (which you can sell later for cash).

Classic

complicado al principio pero un joya al final. nostalgia

I'm going to give this a thumbs up, because it is a fun game and I enjoyed the shareware version back in the day. But I just want to rant about a few things, a little backstory about me and bullet hells: I have beaten the arcade Raiden, Strikers 1945 1,2,3, Enter the Gungeon... I am extremely good at bullet hell games. That being said: 1. The screen/playzone should be bigger. You barely have any space to dodge, and the controls are not great, very finicky and you move very fast, hard to make small adjustments. Not to mention, you realistically have about 0.5 seconds to kill an enemy, or it just flies off screen. You earn money by killing enemies. You need money to get the stronger weapons or else you are literally useless and can't hurt anything. 2. The loot enemies drop is hilariously worthless. Some enemies drop extra money... $50... to put it in perspective to purchase a "good weapon" it costs around $700,000. You would need to collect 14 thousand of these LOL. They are literally not even worth picking up. The main way you earn money is by picking up weapons you already have. 3. The game punishes you for close calls, and comebacks are punitive. As in, let's say you almost die, but not quite. Well, remember that weapon you spent the entire game saving for, that you absolutely cannot hurt anyone without at the later stages? If your energy runs low, your weapons just disappear. You don't get them back at the end of the level, there is no way to recover them. Even if you somehow beat the odds and clear the level with 1 hp left, there's no point. You would be insane to not load your previous save because you're useless and can't deal damage anymore. 4. Bosses have about a 1 second window to attack them. 5. There is some enemy in the first wave of the outer regions that 100-0'd me in a single shot from off screen. It was a laser that seems to travel the screen instantly. Never had a chance to dodge, just blown up instantly. 6. I could honestly forgive all of that... but you have to go to the 21st page of the manual to find out what the controls are. LOL. TWENTY ONE PAGES later, you can find out how to play the game. What on earth were they thinking????? If you played this back in the day like I did, the nostalgia will carry you. If you're picking this up for the first time, I would honestly recommend Raiden or Strikers 1945 instead. They are orders of magnitude better. Still for the price, it's probably worth it.

I bought this game in the 1990's and loved it. The CD stopped working on newer PC's so when it came out on steam and it worked I was so happy. Would be good if someone could update the graphics and sound, without changing the game play. True classic game

Played this game a boy. Holds up year's later. Auto-tracking mini-gun forever, baby. Easily worth 5 USD. Seriously, there is one aspect of the design that is disappointing: the vast majority of the weapons serve no purpose. You pick them up from a weapons cache, use them for a level or two, and then sell them so you can get closer to the auto-laser and twin-laser -- the only two equippable weapons you need to defeat the game. For the record, I've beat it on Elite.