Raptor Call of the Shadows on PC ... Zarlor Mercenary?

[sirlynxalot]

I remembered this game from my childhood recently, Raptor call of the shadows. An MSdos shareware game published by Apogee (folks behind the Duke Nukem games) in the early 1990s.  I was playing it again on a nostalgia trip and the game seemed very very remniscent of Zarlor Mercenary.  Here were some of the similarities between each game:

 

-top down vertically scrolling shooter game

-you have a life bar on the side so you can take many hits instead of only 1 or a couple (kind of rare in this genre)

-when you collect weapon, bomb or shield power ups inside the level they are presented as floating icons with rings around them

-each game has the premise that you are a hired mercenary, hired to fly your ship around and destroy stuff for money

-your score translates into money that you can spend on powerups at a shop between levels (not a common feature in top down shooters)

-certain enemies look similar. One of the most notable examples is the long sky train type enemies in level 3 of Zarlor, Raptor also has similar looking long flying train-like enemies, which are not exactly a mainstay of the genre.

-the games allow you to choose a character avatar at the beginning to represent you as the pilot/mercenary (not a common feature in top down shooters)

-the end of level bosses in both games don't tend to do anything that exotic, and instead just lob a collection of slowly moving fireballs at you

 

The games also have some differences, and while Zarlor goes for outer-space sci fi, Raptor goes for a top gun jet plane kinda vibe... but I think there are enough peculiar similarities here where I'm convinced the guy who created Raptor had to have played Zarlor Mercenary and taken some inspiration.

 

[+jgkspsx]

I always thought of it as mostly inspired by Raiden, but those are interesting points. Some of these items are also found in Euro shmups like Xenon 2, though.

[sirlynxalot]

Personally, I think xenon inspired zarlor. 

[Tidus79001]

Nice game, I got it free with my Atari Lynx I in 1991 when Atari was giving it away as a bonus for anyone purchasing the system.  Can't remember what the other game choice was but I had to mail in my receipt and UPC code from the box for my Lynx to get it (still not thrilled about having to chop that of the box and still have the system box even after 31 years).

Edited April 1, 2022 by Tidus79001