Bandits at 3 O'clock was released in 1983 for the Acorn Electron. I cannot find the specific developer for the Electron version, but Micro Power were the developers of the BBC version. Nor can I find any reviews for the game. I would have been somewhere near the age of 7 or 8 when I last played this game.
The game was either single or two-player. Single player meant facing off against the computer. As can be seen in the screenshot above, the player controls one of two aeroplane sprites, separated on a runway by a church. At the game's start, both aeroplanes start their engines and begin to travel along the runway towards the church. Players must takeoff by pressing on a directional key on the keyboard which causes the sprite to head upwards. From here, the game turns into a shooter, with the aim being to shoot down the other plane before it shoots you, with the player controlling up or down movements on the keyboard. Both planes carried machine guns which were activated with another key.
One of the really strange limitations of the game was that the sprites used for the planes did not change, so if the plane taking off on the right hand side of the screen wanted to travel to the right, it had to perform a loop and travel upside down. This also applied to the left side plane if it wanted to travel to the left. I found this slightly disconcerting and even though it was a primitive game, on early technology, I already felt that this was a strange situation.
Once a plane is shot down, the game resets, with a gravestone placed on the runway beside the church. As the game progresses, and planes are shot down, more gravestones are added, and the losing plane's runway becomes shorter and shorter. The game finishes with a really interesting idea that when the runway is too short, the plane can no longer takeoff and crashes into the gravestones. Game over.
I remember really enjoying Bandits when I played it. Of all the Electron games that I played, it is the one which has remained in my head.
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