Demon Attack

Demon Attack recalls a time when the game industry wasn't embarrassed by a lack of originality. A world appears on screen that looks like someone copied it straight from one popular arcade, except with demons instead of space creatures. In any case — it's a functioning shooting game from the early eighties for PC.

You control a simple vehicle or character at the bottom of the screen and shoot upward at approaching enemies. The game draws inspiration from classic Galaga-style shooter mechanics — simple and effective. This isn't a complex system; rather, it's about staying alive while countless waves of enemy parts try to take your life. You defeat each wave, another comes, tougher and tougher. Standard.

On computers of the eighties, this meant simple graphics with pixel art you probably won't even remember what exactly was. Sound would be weak — the beeps the sound generator produced for shooting and demon deaths. The keyboard controls without issues, and reflexes and timing against bullets are fair, if you have patience with old controls. The game doesn't stand on any brilliant idea, nor even on a particularly interesting plot.

In the nineties it was simply another shooter for fun in offices or at celebrations. Demon Attack is no different, and over time it faded into a flood of better games. Playing it today means returning to a time when pixels and a simple rule were enough — shoot or die.

If you like pure arcade fun without frills and you knew your way around Asteroids or Galaxian, Demon Attack won't disappoint you. In the browser you can fire it up in the emulator and spend half an hour with it. But you won't expect more, because it simply isn't a game that would be written in golden letters for the ages. It's just a game.