Zarathrusta

Zarathrusta
Developer(s)	The Whiz Kidz
Publisher(s)	Hewson Consultants
Programmer(s)	Peter Verswyvelen
Artist(s)	Erland Robaye
Platform(s)	Amiga
Release	1991
Genre(s)	Multidirectional shooter
Mode(s)	Single player

Zarathrusta is a 1991 computer game for the Amiga, developed by The Whiz Kidz and published by Hewson Consultants. Zarathrusta (a portmanteau between "Zarathustra" and "Thrust") is a Thrust clone with improved features.

Gameplay

Zarathrusta screenshot

The game has a simple plot, where the Resistance is about to launch a major offensive against the Empire, but to this end, they need fuel for their spaceships. The player character is commissioned by the Resistance to retrieve fuel pods from the surface of the Empire's storage planets and transport them to the Resistance.

The actual gameplay is similar to that in the original game Thrust, where the player pilots a small spaceship that is constantly subject to gravity. The player has to rotate the spaceship and thrust its engines to navigate the planet and pick up fuel pods. The Empire has various defence mechanisms on the surface of the planet. Some of them shoot at the player's spaceship or try to divert its course, whereas some merely block the spaceship's path. The player's spaceship is armed with a plasma bolt cannon and a laser scanning device, which can be used to destroy some of these defence mechanisms.

Whereas the original game Thrust used vector graphics, Zarathrusta uses bitmap graphics.

Development

In a December 1990 issue of The One, Hewson Consultants, Zarathrusta's publisher, stated that the game is inspired by the 1986 video game Thrust.