I spent many hours as a kid playing 1994’s amazing vertical scrolling flight shooter Raptor: Call of the Shadows on MS-DOS, so I instantly recognized this scene by Havoc. It’s a brilliant game for its age, with an upgradeable ship and damage that has to be repaired between missions. I love that Havoc has built the entire interface into the model, including the health bar on the right side, and that explosion which looks perfectly retro.
I hadn’t thought about this game in 20 years, but I decided to look it up again after seeing this fantastic creation and was elated—and more than a bit surprised—to discover it’s not only available on Steam but can be played for free in a browser. Guess what I just spent the last half hour doing?
Finally, builder Havoc has even recreated the pixel art from the cover.