A superb action game in the vein of the R-type series from arcades.

User Rating: 8.1 | Raptor: Call of the Shadows PC
Apogee Software used to make some incredible shareware games. Shareware now is pretty much non-existent or larger games typically release a free demo. But way back in 1995, I shelled out 7 bucks for the privilege of playing Raptor off of a 3.5" floppy disk on my aging 486. It was fun. Graphics were excellent, nothing 3D, and the levels were fun albeit a bit simplistic. It was your standard fare, destroy everything on the screen. You play as a fighter pilot battling ships and ground installations while the ground passes underneath you at a quick pace. Nearly everything on screen was destructible and sheer amount of weapons (some 20 in all) made outfitting and purchasing upgrades rather fun. Nearly 8 years later I found a copy of all the episodes and played through them. I had a lot of fun, but not a large desire to replay. However, I do think Apogee had a gem on their hands when they created Raptor: Call of the Shadows. (I would think to get this working today, you would need DOS4GW or an equivalent to launch.)