I've recently read about a game called Rebelstar which is supposedly a predecessor of Laser Squad. Has any of you played this? If so, how good is it compared to its sequels?

Jeez Mr. Creosote you sure do pick 'em.

Rebelstar ........... .....
.
wait a minute.....
..
memories come flooding back....
.
smile on my face..
.
rooting in my dark cluttered cavern desperately looking to see if I have a copy....
.
.
.
DAMN! i'll be on ebay till I find it.

From what I remember ( I could be getting them confused here) its pretty much the same excpet for shooting long distance is more erratic i.e. bloody impossible. The maps differant also (obviously), on Rebelstar(again, could be confusing them) you start in the upper left and theres an alien base to the right and you have to wipe out all the aliens in time to make it to the space ship that comes to pick you up.

I think you get less reinforcements on Rebelstar as well, I'm pretty sure Rebelstar is harder than Laser Squad, or is that the wrong way round??. There both very similar.

As for how good it is, I can remember wasting more than a full summer holiday from school playing Rebelstar, sometime between '84 and '88. Rebelstar is going straight to the top of my wants list which, for the speccy at least, is pretty much complete. I'm surprised I havent still got it. Must have swapped it years ago.

Knew I had it somewhere. TZX format.

I never played Rebelstar on my Spectrum, but I remember it was universally acclaimed a ground-breaking strategy game. I checked it out (via emulation) some time ago and thought it was indeed pretty good, as Spectrum games go. If you're looking for more info check out this review.

Thanks for your confirmations I have downloaded it now and will try it out some time this week. Seems like I could have found something really worthwile again after quite a lot of wasted time

Had chance to try it yet Mr C.? If so whats your verdict?

Nothing yet, sorry. I've been writing on my next review for the site over the last few days, I just couldn't get it right and I'm still not quite satisfied with it. That should be done today though, Rebelstar is the next point on my list then

Tried it out now. Mind you this is only a first impression after having played one mission, not a final verdict. I'm also comparing Rebelstar on the Spectrum with Laser Squad on the C64, so some differences I will mention might be system-related and not game-related.

Graphics: Rebelstar's are good, but Laser Squad has a lot more eye-candy with its pseudo-3D walls and all.

Controls: Really ackward in Rebelstar - especially on a German keyboard (the key for moving down-left is completely off). Once I got used to it, it worked, but I still hit the wrong keys quite often. I prefer the joystick controls of Laser Squad by far!

Complexity: Can't buy weapons and shields for my soldiers and can't place them freely. Something I really enjoy in Laser Squad.

Overall, it certainly isn't a bad game, its age shows especially in the controls though. Didn't really get the hang of it yet, the successor indeed seems to be better.

Is Laser Squad freeware, or am I being told false information?

I heard that, too. It might have been released to advertise the new Laser Squad Renegade...