Goldrunner

Goldrunner
Developer(s)	Microdeal
Programmer(s)	Steve Bak
Artist(s)	Pete Lyon
Composer(s)	Rob Hubbard
Platform(s)	Atari ST (original) Amiga
Release	1987
Genre(s)	Vertically scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	single-player, 1-2 players alternating

Goldrunner is a vertically scrolling shooter published by Microdeal in 1987 and developed by Steve Bak and Pete Lyon. Rob Hubbard composed the music. The game was originally developed for the Atari ST and later ported to Amiga.

A sequel, Goldrunner II, was released in 1988. It was developed by Alex Herbert and John Dower.

Gameplay

Goldrunner is a freely vertically scrolling shooter game where it is possible to fly back and forth as in the seminal Defender. The player is steering a golden spaceship equipped with two laser cannons, flying over huge spaceships whose ground-structures he has to destroy. The ship has a speed booster to accelerate.

Visuals

This shoot 'em up features fluid vertical scrolling, which was seldom achieved on Atari ST hardware, as it did not support hardware-based soft-scrolling. The distinct graphical style of the game added to its popularity.

Audio

Commodore 64 composer Rob Hubbard made the music for the game. The theme melody is taken from the game Human race (4th part). There are digitized voice samples mixed into the music, like "Welcome to Goldrunner!".