Delta

Delta is the second game Finnish programmer Stavros Fasoulas wrote for Thalamus: after the celebrated Sanxion came this 1987 horizontal shooter, released in America under the name Delta Patrol. Fasoulas belonged to the small club of programmers whose names actually sold games, and Delta shows why — technically it sat near the top of what a Commodore 64 could do, all silky scrolling and relentless speed.

The foundation is Gradius-style classicism: fly right, dodge, and shoot down waves of enemies arriving in fixed formations. The upgrade system is the interesting part. Destroyed formations feed you power-up points, but certain formations subtract points instead, so you have to choose your battles. Upgrades you cannot yet afford appear greyed out on screen — and touching a grey icon kills you outright. Nor is your equipment permanent; speed and firepower drain away over time and must be earned all over again.

The music deserves a paragraph of its own. Rob Hubbard's menu theme adapts Philip Glass's Koyaanisqatsi, while the in-game track riffs on Pink Floyd's instrumental On the Run — together one of the most memorable soundtracks ever coaxed out of the SID chip.

Now for some honesty: Delta is beautiful, fluid, uncompromisingly hard — and monotonous. The waves repeat, the level design rewards stamina more than curiosity, and even the contemporary press was lukewarm; Zzap!64 settled on 74 percent, with part of the team openly preferring Sanxion. Today it makes sense mainly for lovers of hard-nosed shooters, and for anyone who wants to hear what Hubbard could conjure from three sound channels.

You can launch it at oldgame.cz directly in the browser, nothing to install.