I’m trying to find an old game for either the C64 or PC but I can’t remember the title. All I remember is a bit of the description; the game involves flying in angled trenches and probably shooting everything in sight. Any of this ring Dopers’ bells?
Gonna need a bit more work to ring my bell.
Flying in angled trenches- given your mention of C64, I assume this wasn’t a 3d over-the-shoulder flight sim, but rather a 2d side scroller, or something to that extent? Can you describe the gameplay any further?
If it is 3-D orthographic, it sounds like Zaxxon to me, but then it was available in many platforms.
I can’t find a direct link to a picture of Zaxxon on the C-64 that isn’t also a link to sites disapproved of on this board, but a Google search on zaxxon C-64 may help you somewhat to get a picture. If by ‘angled’, you meant diagonally across the screen (lower left to upper right), that’s what I’d bet it is. Unless it’s more of a straight on through game, like Star Wars (similar to the arcade game, annoyingly too similar since the joystick was ‘upside-down’ for up/down control – but you weren’t always in the trench). Buck Rogers was almost identical in play to Star Wars, now that I think of it, but there weren’t really trenches, there were gates you passed through. River Raid was technically over a river, which is like a trench but the game was all 2-D, no actual elevation was shown. For some reason I also thought that Journey Escape (yes, featuring the rock band) was similar to Zaxxon, but I think I’m mistaken.
panamajack
“Some will win, some will lose”
No, no, not Zaxxon. I’ve played that on both my 64 and a ColecoVision; I wouldn’t confuse it with anything else. I’m pretty sure what I’m trying to remember was out for both systems and possibly others but may have been only for systems with greater processing power (PC/Mac/Amiga). IIRC, it was released around 1990, so if it was released for the 64 it would have been one of the last for that platform. Perspective and gameplay should be similar to the Sega classic Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom except with the previously mentioned trenches.
By “angled trench” I mean something along the lines of the exhaust port trench on the first DeathStar except with angled sides.
Also, there may have been multiple trenches, allowing the player to switch trenches at crossings.
If you saw the title, would it look familiar to you?
Good question. I might be able to recognize the title if presented. I’d probably have to google any suggestions for a screen shot and/or box shot to be sure.
Could it be uridium? According to the “About the game” page, it came out in 1986 for C64.
I remember playing it on an 80x88, too.
Oh, here’s the link for the google search I did.
No, not Uridium; I actually got to the Uridium level on that a couple of times on my 64. The perspective of the game I’m trying to remember would most likely be from behind as in the Buck Rogers link above.
I think the title, or perhaps the title’s font on the box, is similar to Silpheed. Silpheed is a space combat game so that’s not it.
BTW: I’d link to a boxshot of Silpheed but the only sites I found that has one are for abandonware; the mods wouldn’t be happy if I linked to that sort of site.
Well, at the risk of sounding…condescending, I guess, there was a Star Wars game with the infamous exhaust thingy, but that’d probably be a bit too obvious, huh?
Plus it’s kinda hard to forget anything with “Star Wars” in the title. 
There are several great sites where you can look at the screen shots from Commodore 64 games, and even download the original games and run them on your PC:
(look in the ‘games’ section)
and
plus many more (search Yahoo or Google)
Was it perhaps River Raid?
Not a chance. River Raid was released for several platforms, including the venerable Atari 2600. I doubt the game I’m trying to remember could’ve been compacted into an 8-bit version.
Thanks for the links! I remembered that I had been wanting to find another game, one that I have actually played on the 64. This one was multiplayer and had a medieval feel. Each player started off with a castle and could raise armies to capture the other castles. There wasn’t much graphics to speak of and all action took place on a single screen with a yellow background. All those pictures should help find that one.
BTW: I had played a game on my 64 that is close to the one that inspired my OP but I couldn’t remember the title for that, either. I found it via the first link above: Stealth. Proper gameplay elements and perspective but no trench.
Another question concerning a C64 game came to mind. I used to play a trained copy of Strangeloop that I had downloaded. Anybody know what this point of this game is? I assume it had something to do with the sector with the hull breach but everytime I got near there I got sucked through the breach. Or perhaps the key was the sector I couldn’t access, the one near the center?