Operation Spacehog

Overview

Operations Spacehog is a 2d horizontal shooter, with twoplayer capabilities and loads of different ugrades. The more you invest in an a special upgrade power, the better it gets. The game was developed by Free Lunch Design

, and released for free at their website in  year 2000. Johan Peitz made design, graphics and code, Andreas Qassim made character art, and Aaron Hankla made the music.  The sound effects were taken from public domain archives .

 
 

Plot

"In a near and quite possible future..." crosses the screen Star Wars style in the intro cut scene of the game, with the vast space in the background. Soon Earth comes into view, and a huge spaceship teleports out of nowhere right above earth. A squid like alien demands that the earthlings surrender, but a military officer promptly answers that the weirdo should keep his distance, and that we will never surrender. 
Enter you, a pilot.    

Gameplay

Operation Spacehog is  2d horizontal shooter where you play as a pilot in small ship battling an endless amount of enemies with just your sturdy gun. You can only fire straight forwards (unless you purchase an upgrade that lets you fire sideways, or lets you spray bullets), and if speed is left without upgrades, the ship's movement seems a bit slow. When two are playing together the odds of surviving rise dramatically, albeit you may discover that your friend will hog all the upgrade blobs for himself, as these are free to pickup by both players.  A single blob will appear when you defeat a group of enemies.
 

Pilots

 You get a choice between three pilots. Each of the ships have special weapons, and move at different speeds. 
 

Name: Billy 68 
Name of spaceship: Viper
Unreliable and totally insane. This character is safer off-Earth.
Fast and agile ship, but limited firepower. Equipped with Berserk charges. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Name: Sheila L

onghart
Name of spaceship: Albatross
 English lady with a taste for action. Beautiful and sexy, but cold to the bone.
An average ship for general purposes. Carries the famous Hellrider missiles.
 
 
 

 
Name: Maxim

illian Drake
Name of spaceship: Bulldog
Threefold winner of The Mr. Universe contest. Cocky and selfconfident American.
Powerful and heavy but a bit slow. On board is the fireworks weapon. 
 
 
 
 
 

Power Ups

You collect green orbs that can be invested in several different power ups. These will upgrade you ship in many different ways. 
Some will give your weapons a boost (giving you plasma or magma bullets for instance), while there is also the option to get a shield, shoot in different directions, or upgrade the speed of the ship. 
The more green orbs you collect, the better the power up you will be able to purchase.