by CP Soft
A Plus adaption of the classic Amstrad shoot-em-up game
CP Soft:”Harrier Attack, by
Durell Software Ltd, published by Amsoft, is an iconic game that is
instantly recognizable by Amstrad users as it came bundled free with the
machine. I remember spending many hours playing it with my dad when
we got our first Amstrad, a CPC 464, back in 1987. I flew the plane
and my dad pressed the space bar to bomb the targets. Many people have
fond memories of growing up, playing this game.
Some are under the impression that Harrier Attack was written in
the BASIC programming language. They may think this due to its slow
speed, blocky movements and 8×8 character-sized sprites. But it is
written in machine code. Its slow speed is due to the entire screen
being scrolled one byte at a time. There are also program loops
inserted by the programmer to deliberately slow the game down,
presumably to make it easier for children to ‘win’ on the earlier
levels.
As Harrier Attack is a fairly simple game, I wanted to see if I
could disassemble it, to try to speed it up. The result is Harrier
Attack Reloaded!”
