Space Demons

Space Demons is a small, sci-fi, action game series developed by Treats For Don, and published by Acting Vision. It was one of the most popular game series in the late 20th century, and is still has a slight cult following. The goal of the game was to fly a little spaceship around blasting UFO's, and to stay alive long enough to reach a boss battle. The game was such a hit that TFD make 3 other games to go along with it.

Space Demons I
In Space Demons I the goal of the game is to fly a tiny, red spaceship around blasting UFO's. Every 10 UFO's destroyed, and the game gets harder. If the player lasts for over 6 minutes, he/she will reach a boss battle at the end. The boss battle is the most difficult part of the game. During the boss battle a large UFO appears, and begins blasting multiple projectiles at the space ship. There's no way to defeat the boss until asteroids with mirrors attached to them appear, then the player has to trick the UFO into shooting those mirrors. The lazers bounce back at the UFO, and damage it, however, after one shot the one mirror is completely useless because it has been destroyed. In this game players could only fire one type of weapon, a blue lazer. In later games players were able to choose several different weapons, with different abilities and weaknesses.

In Space Demons I, unlike the sequels and spin-offs, there was no storyline to the game. The closest thing to a storyline was a title sequence at the beginning saying "Aliens have invaded! Prepare your ship for a battle with the little, green peoples". Space Demons I was awarded several awards, and even became the #1 Past Time Game of the Year in 1990. In 1991 it was still in the Top Ten Games, and was in there until 1992. It has a large cult following currently, but is loosing its fame everyday.



Space Demons II
Space Demons II was the sequel to the original Space Demons game. It was released in 1990, about two months after Space Demons I was released. Space Demons II was much like the original game, but it had higher quality graphics, more difficult game play, and a stronger storyline. The game's beginning was actually a title sequence, which was a little cartoon that told the whole storyline of the game. It read: "Many years ago the three-eyed, purple speckled creatures of Megada invaded Earth. They were hunting for special resources only available on Earth, but last time they were there penguins hadn't inhabited all of Antarctica. So an astronaut took a space ship to the heavens, and fought off the aliens. They left saying, 'We shall return, and we will conquer Antarctica!'. We penguins later made peace with them, and now trade and bargain with them."

Space Demons II had a much more complicated game play. In the game players would fly a space ship from planet to planet, buying and selling goods to different aliens, all except Jupiter. On Jupiter players could take loans from a special bank ran by an evil alien organization. If the player did not pay the loan back in time, a fleet of alien ships would hunt down the player trying to kill him/her. The player can either fight, pay back the loan, or retreat. The battle was very difficult, and after it was complete all the aliens would turn on the player. The player would then have to fly back to Earth, avoiding invasions along the way. Unlike Space Demons I players had multiple weapons, and ships to choose from. Each ship and weapon had different strengths and weaknesses, this is one of the many reasons Space Demons II became so popular.

In 1999 a video game version of the game was released for the 3DO. The video game version was developed, and published by Acting Vision. During 1999 there were rumors spread that Treats For Don was going to start working on a movie based on the game, but the movie never began production.



Space Demons III
Space Demons III was released in 1990, after fans were begging for Space Demons to return. Treats For Don hadn't been making Space Demons in awhile, they were focusing on their other games. TFD didn't put much work into SD3 so it wasn't as popular on the market as other games, but big fans of the series didn't care. In Space Demons the storyline kicks off at the end of the last game. Like SD2 there's a little cartoon at the beginning of the game, which goes like this: A ship has landed on Earth, and bring saddening news to the Earthlings. Due to a big conflict in outer space aliens are going to form an alliance, and destroy all life on earth. So the Earthling armies groups up, and prepare for war. When the aliens invade a massive battle takes place, and special astronauts are called in. There are five astronauts, name Mike, Tex, Quilt, Susy, and Sam. Each astronaut has one ship, and each ship has different strengths and weaknesses.

In the game the player must destroy alien ships before they reach the Earthling forces, and destroy them. The ship the player is controlling can only shoot upwards, and can only move side to side. For every alien ship that passes the player, one earthling on the ground is killed. When all the earthlings are dead the game is lost. Fro every three levels a player advances, there's one less earthling (meaning a less chance of surviving), and more invading alien ships. At the end the player must fight a massive fleet of alien ships. At the beginning of the level, players can choose which astronaut's ship they use in that level.

Space Demons IV
Space Demons IV was the last of the Space Demons series, and was released in 1990. It was one of the most complicated games of the series, it had a massive storyline, and the best game play so far. Many players enjoyed it, because of it's complicated system. The storyline, unlike the others, doesn't start off where the last game left off. The storyline takes place in 2020, where the penguins have taken over all of the Earth. The way the penguins took over Earth was capturing all the humans and sending them into space, which took place in 2013. But in outer space the humans had been planning to take back their Earth, and were preparing to battle. So the humans multiplied, and created a great army. On a summer day the humans invaded Antarctica, and attacked. The penguins must find another band of heroes, and protect themselves from the humans. So the penguin countries group together, and select 5 new heroes. These heroes are given space ships, and sent to defeat the humans.

In the game the player can play with 5 different ships, like in Space Demons III, but instead of choosing the ship at the beginning of the level the player can switch between ships while playing the level. Each ship has different strengths and weaknesses. The goal of the game is to protect the state's capital, and civilians from the humans. In the beginning levels the humans only attack the capital, but as the player advances the humans start attacking the capital and the civilians at the same time.

Reception
The Space Demons series was one of the most popular computer game series in the 1990's. It connected with many young players, and was popular in every nation (except for Castilla). It got an average of four stars, it would be five stars but one star was lost due to the fact that the 3rd game was pretty bad. The game was only rated five stars by three raters. The game was so popular that it still has a small cult following, and some old merchandise is still giving Treats For Don some profit.

Reception Quotes

 * Feel free to add your own character's thought about Space Demons!

"That was pretty fun. I want more games!"

- Garmield Pie

"I don't like it."

- Feey1 Pie

"How do you control this thing!?"

- Speeddasher

Trivia

 * This is a parody of Star Control.
 * Acting Vision is thinking about producing the movie based on Star Control that Treats For Don never got to doing.
 * Each cover for each game includes a picture from one of PASA's telescopes.