Another game I was pretty good at was Gradius, Konami’s 1985 arcade shooter. Hours spent on that game at RA4 game pub down-town Oslo.
After Crystal Castles this morning, I had to have that one too.
The game
- Seven stages: a volcano, stone heads, crystals, living cells, the sun, a high-speed maze and the fortress.
- A boss at the end of each. Three core ships, a stone head, an eye, a fire serpent, and a brain behind walls that grow back.
- Shoot a whole formation, or a red carrier, for a capsule. Each capsule lights the next power-up on the bar.
ZorEntertakes what is lit: speed, missiles, double, laser, option, shield.- Up to four options follow your path and fire with you.
- Every seventh capsule is blue. It clears the screen.
- After the seventh stage it all begins again. Harder.
A tribute
A copy of the arcade game would need Konami’s own program. So everything here is new: the stages, the ships, the music.
Rock, fire, cells and steel. A frame takes under three milliseconds. glass shows the pixels.
Summary
Built with Claude on funkey in 30 minutes. Public Domain, like everything I make.
Link to this post: https://isene.org/2026/09/Salvo.html