Fire & Forget II

It is notable for the variety of its enemy sprites, and for its use of parallax scrolling. It is also notable for being one of the first video games to be launched simultaneously on two consoles.

• Title — Fire & Forget II • Developer — Titus • Publisher — Titus Amstrad • Platform — Amiga, Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, Master System, GX4000 • Release — November 1990 • Genre — Racing, shoot 'em up • Modes — Single-player

The object of the game is to prevent a convoy of vehicles from reaching the city of Megapolis where a terrorist attack has been planned against the 3rd International Conference for Peace. Taking control of a weaponised flying car named the Thunder Master II in pursuit of this goal, the player is presented with a combination of racing, flying and shoot 'em up gameplay elements. The player must navigate the road to Megapolis at high speed, working their way up the convoy and destroying a wide array of opponents, ranging from armed motorcycles, cars and jeeps, to road-side cannons, bomber aircraft and robotic walkers. The ultimate aim is to reach and to disable the lead vehicle which is equipped with a nuclear weapon of mass destruction called the 'Life Thirsty'. Despite a notable variety of enemies, the player has a limited range of abilities and power-ups available to them. The Thunder Master II vehicle is equipped with only two weapons: the basic 'ionic phaser' gun (activated with Button 1), and missiles (activated with Buttons 1 and 2 together). The player must keep the Thunder Master II fuelled by making contact with cans placed in the road: blue cans contain fuel which allow the vehicle to continue driving on the highway, and red cans contain kerosene which permit the vehicle to fly. The two types of fuel are indicated by two separate fuel gauges. The in-game user interface displays the player's score as well as written messages, such as an indication of when the Thunder Master II is ready for take-off.