Comments on: How did you find Laser Squad?

By: Steve Smith

Steve Smith — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 08:53:57 +0000

I remember seeing a screenshot of LS in the preview section of Sinclair User. Just the graphics looked great, and me and a mate went halves on a copy. We used to play it for hours.

By: Mr. Mirandos

Mr. Mirandos — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 03:59:28 +0000

Back in 1988 I was very happy. Now I finally owned a Commodore 64! I lived in a small city in Finland and didn’t know of a good place to get games but I got a few from friends. Then a year later, at the golden age of 15, I had a chance and knew of a good place to order some brand new games for it. I had started to read some computer magazines which were of course already praising Commodore Amiga everywhere. Dungeon Master was the greatest game ever they said. Could I get a game like that for the C64? Or possibly some other game with real depth…

So, I ordered some games that had great reviews. The guy on the phone was extremely helpful as I ordered the games. He told me more about them. He seemed to know everything! For example, he warned me about Xenon for C64. (It’s a bad conversion of an Amiga original). I was stupid and didn’t listen. I really wanted it ’cause the Xenon II had great reviews for Amiga. I used to love those kind of shoot ‘em ups a bit similar to Xenon II, like Konami’s Gradius/Nemesis or Salamander for my friend’s MSX (Spectravideo) computer. I had never played any strategy games… until I was blessed by a lucky twist of fate.

Well… It had been said that the closest thing to Dungeon Master for C64 was Bloodwych. So I had ordered it as well. Then it happened! I was lucky… It turned out to be that Bloodwych wasn’t available at the moment and the same guy recommended me Laser Squad instead! I’m forever grateful to that guy! The best salesman ever!

Some years later I had the Amiga as well. Yes, I also had Dungeon Master and it was a great game. The only thing is that I haven’t even finished Dungeon Master and I didn’t really have a great deal of interest to it. But as for Laser Squad, it’s the greatest game ever! I still play it. I started to play it yet again about a week ago. And the Commodore 64 version is perfect. Just listen to those explosion-sounds! The Amiga and PC conversions of this Sinclair ZX Spectrum original don’t have the same touch of class. It still made me proud to own a C64!

“Lords of Chaos” was also a very important game for me. Another brilliant creation by Julian Gollop and a follow up to Spectrum classic “Chaos”. My brother and my sister and a couple of friends used to play it together all the time on holidays.

By: Slice

Slice — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 02:05:56 +0000

I agree with The BetPet regarding Laser Squad Nemesis waited for that for years but just is not gritty enough like the original. I did buy it and play it originally but never quite grabbed me. Too gamey and plastic for me.

It’s amazing really so many great games such as, UFO/X-Com, Duke Nukem etc all waiting years to be done justice again and never quite happening. Odd that. X-Com is something like No.10 on most all time great games lists and still all the clones have missed the point so far.

Anyway glad this is here, will give the old Laser Squad another go. Just played the one William Fraser did online and it’s still fun.

By: The Betpet

The Betpet — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:01:40 +0000

I actually first heard about Laser Squad when it got the ‘Mastergame’ in Amstrad Action. It was nerly Christmas and every time I read the review I just wanted it more and more. I asked my dad for it on disc (yes, disc. Remember those costing the earth in 1988?) and their ordering mechanism went belly up and I didn’t get it for Christmas. I spoke to my dad and got it a couple of weeks later. All I can say is WOW! Better then the reviews made it out to be! I must have played it night and day for months!

Since I was the only Amstrad owner I knew, all my mates were C64 or Speccy owners so when it came to new games, I didn’t get to talk to them much apart from the standard ‘Renegade’, ‘Emlyn Hughes INternational Soccer’, etc. they brought us all together. A few months later, one of my C64 mates mentioned they had picked up Laser Squad and loved it and it all kicked off. Popping to each other’s houses to take it in turns to leave the room while the other makes their move. Brilliant stuff!

William Fraser has done an awesome job in remaking it for Java. The link is here:

http://freespace.virgin.net/william.fraser/LaserSquadIndex.html

I still reminisce quite happily while taking on my favourite scenario… Moonbase Assault!

As much as I want to love Laser Squad Nemesis, it doesn’t match up to the original Laser Squad!

By: Admin

Admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:25:06 +0000

Hi Rory,

That depends on the c64 emulator you’re using rather than the game itself – if you can point us to the one you’re using then we can figure it out (or just grab the spectrum version ….)

By: Rory

Rory — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:45:43 +0000

I recently downloaded the C64 emulator with LaserSquad on as I loved the game so much, but does anyone know the actual controls?

1) how do you select weapons?
2) and more importantly… how do I even move the cursor to deploy the squad?

Please help, thanks,

Captain Krenon

By: White Kite Fauna

White Kite Fauna — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:40:47 +0000

I did not have a spectrum, but friend of mine did. I spent about a gazillion hours at his place, and LaserSquad was one of the most played. We also took turns leaving the room LaserSquad was very big in Soviet Union back in the day.
Now I find it to be an excellent “brain trainer” on the long commutes to work. Used to have an emulator for pocketpc, now it’s ipod touch.

By: Roddy

Roddy — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:21:30 +0000

I guess I was late to the party as my first experience of Laser Squad was on the Atari ST. Most Sunday mornings were spent playing this with my brother as we took turns leaving the room to play the game.

I have recently rediscovered Laser Squad through the iPhone C64 emulator which brought all of those memories flooding back. Work hasn’t been the same since!

By: Arkon

Arkon — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:51:06 +0000

I bought a pirate cassette with a game compilation (for some weird reason, the best C64 games weren’t published in Poland, but some of the worst, most masochistic, poorly balanced games were.) and Laser Squad was one of the games on it.
I remember playing it a lot, sometimes with friends.
I loved its mechanics, atmosphere and graphics. Too bad that it had so few scenarios…

I have recently hunted down the Target release on eBay.

By: Admin

Admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:52:37 +0000

I never played Platoon on the spectrum until it was on an emulator, as i had them all for the C64 – howver i do very much remember sometimes waiting for upto half an hour for the AI to make it’s moves in Paradise Valley.

Thanks for the comment btw Nic – my very first !