Chopper
| Chopper | |
 A screenshot of the Chopper re-release. | |
| Information | |
|---|---|
| Developer | RJD Software Development, then Dennington Games |
| Type | 2D side-scrolling shooting game |
| Platform | Microsoft Windows |
| Current Version | Version 1.01 |
| Full-Installation Size | 5MB |
| Written in | GML |
| License | Ginever.net Community License |
Chopper is a small arcade-like side scrolling helicopter shooting game made by what was then Dennington Games for Windows computers running Windows 95 or better. It was originally made with Game Maker 4 by Paul Dennington and published by Farsight Productions. It was released in 2003.
Contents |
Gameplay
The game introduces the player to a small green helicopter, and gives the player the objective of reaching and destroying a stealth carrier. Along the way, the player must shoot down enemy planes which are similar in appearance but different in colour. The player can move his helicopter using the arrow keys and fire by pressing CTRL. One bullet will destroy enemy helicopters on impact. The game is split into many levels that the player can progress through, and as they do they will encounter new enemies that are capable of moving, flying faster or firing back, and enemy helicopters will come more rapidly.
Bugs
The original version suffered from a 'ghost plane' bug where dead planes would reappear for a very small amount of time on the left hand side of the screen before the game engine recycled them. Standing too far to the left would often result in you losing a life as you collided with the dead planes. It also featured a bug where levels would not progress if a key was being held down. Both bugs were fixed in the re-release.
Re-release
Chopper was re-released in 2008 by RJD Software Development as "Chopper v1.01", once again for the Windows platform, but XP or newer. The primary purpose of re-releasing the game was to make it compatible with Windows Vista, which the game lacked support for. The re-release also fixed critical bugs such as the 'ghost plane' bug and 'level progression' bug, replaced the level 2 music 'Popcorn' with a higher quality version (for the original release, Paul had recorded the music from a cassette player), and changed the game to run in windowed mode rather than full-screen.
The re-release is currently available for free download from Ginever.net's download center.
Cheat codes
The game features a number of cheat functions as follows:
- Press F12 during level 1 to access the Secret Level, where you start with 99 lives and play until you have lost all of your lives.
- Press Backspace during level 1 to skip immediately to the Boss Level.
- Press and hold Z during the Boss Level to rapidly inflate your score.
Additional cheats existed during development, but they were removed prior to the final release.
Use of the name 'Ginever'
Those who played Chopper after it was re-released noticed that the terrorist group was called the 'Ginever Institution of Terrorism', and that the new publisher of the game was called 'The Ginever Block'. This is primarily down to the fact that both were named after the real-life Ginever Block located at S. Peter's Collegiate School in Wolverhampton.
Future developments
After the release of Chopper, Paul Dennington proceeded to work on other games in a similar style. For miscellaneous, these were never finished, and many did not get past early alpha stage. However, RJD Software Development have stated that they would like to develop a new side-scrolling game in the future.
