Raptor and Blake Stone

Raptor: Call of the Shadows is a game I remember playing when it was relatively new. It was published by Apogee Software in 1994, although it was made by another developer. After 20+ years, I think it holds up pretty well. Back in the day, it was quite impressive, particularly for a shareware title. Raptor was another vertical-scroller arcade style shooter that reminded me of the coin-op classic Xevious. I put a few hours into Raptor, mainly playing through the Bravo sector levels.

It just occurred to me that I forgot to document the previous Apogee game I played, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold. When I saw it used the Wolfenstein 3D game engine, I didn’t expect to play it for very long. This was pre-Doom and about as primitive as it gets for 3D first person shooters. A funny thing happened. I actually got into it more than I expected. Before I knew it, I had completed all ten levels (floors) of Mission 1: Star Institute. Although the graphics were primitive, I enjoyed the simplicity of the levels with their fixed ceiling height. Targeting was on a level vertical plane, which meant no raising and lowering weapons to aim. I’m not inspired enough to finish all six missions. However, I’m glad I played it if only to bring back memories of playing Wolfenstein 3D.