Blue Lightning

A clock-tripled version of the 486 chip from IBM. The first model released at the end of 1993 was a 25 MHz 486 CPU with an internal speed of 75 MHz.

Download Computer Desktop Encyclopedia to your iPhone/iTouch

• Release Date: 1989
• Genre: Simulation
• Style: Flight Combat Sim
• Similar Games: After Burner (Nintendo Entertainment System), After Burner (Macintosh), After Burner (IBM PC Compatible), After Burner (Sega Genesis 32X), After Burner (Sega Master System), Sky Target (Sega Saturn), Blue Lightning (Atari Jaguar CD), After Burner (Arcade), Sky Target (Arcade)

Game Description

Enemies are attacking the good ol' U.S.A., and the only person in their way is you and your festive blue F-15 -- the Blue Lightning! Hop into the cockpit of one of the military's most dangerous fighters, and get ready to take out the trash! Blue Lightning brings back memories of Sega's Afterburner with its behind-the-plane view and insane amount of 3D scaling effects. Blue Lightning's pace is ruthless, tossing enemy after enemy directly in your face, with your only defenses a Vulcan cannon and guided missiles. If you're ready to plunge over mountain ranges, snowfields, deserts, and urban areas, get ready to fly the Blue Lightning and rain down some holy fire!

Review: Overall

Like Sega's After Burner, Blue Lightning plays out in a pseudo-3D environment. Although the graphics are composed of 2D sprites and bitmaps, you view the game from a behind-the-plane, 3D perspective. The setup does create an interesting 3D feeling that cannot be reproduced except with actual 3D polygonal graphics, which the Lynx can't handle very well.

Your plane is large and well drawn, but there aren't enough frames of animation to make plane movement smooth. Instead, moving feels like a series of discrete steps. You're either flying level or pulling up at 15 to 20 degrees -- there's no in-between. Enemy units have the same problem, limited to a series of discrete angles in flight. The lack of animation frames also results in enemy units suddenly increasing in size as you approach them. Instead of having an enemy plane get progressively larger, sprites, twice as large, suddenly replace small plane sprites.

Only aiming at certain angles also means you can only shoot at those angles. Therefore, you won't be homing in on enemy planes with precision steering. You will go crazy on the D-pad and shoot button, firing rounds in all directions, hoping to catch the enemy with one of them. It's a problem, but you will be able to shoot the enemy down with your shear volume of fire. Learn to deal with the controls for an entertaining, although somewhat repetitive experience. Also, enemy missiles and shots move quickly, but never too quickly to deprive you of a chance to respond. You'll be swarmed with enemies, but never so many that you can't deal with them. As a result, when you die, you don't feel like the game cheated you out of a life. Unfortunately, the missions and enemies do tend to get a bit repetitive.

Blue Lightning's sounds are average at best. After a pretty good intro song, you have to make do with the static hiss passing for engine noise. Kick the afterburner and the static hiss gets louder. Other static buzzes and hisses pretend to be explosions, shots, and missiles. These uninspiring sound effects will have you going for the volume control within minutes, making

Blue Lightning a fairly good shooter with a few problems that keep it from being great, but it's good enough for a Lynx gamer interested in shooters to pick up.

Review: Enjoyment

An enjoyable shooter with fast-paced, balanced gameplay.

Review: Graphics

Good 3D effects using 2D graphics, but the planes could have used more animation frames.

Review: Sound

Static, static everywhere, and not a bit of music to hear.

Review: Replay Value

There is some randomization to the enemies, but once you play through the game there isn't a compelling reason to replay.

Review: Documentation

Adequate documentation.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Pacific Digita 16x48 Int.dvdrom Blue Lightning