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What can you do with just 16kb these days to create a computer game? Some may think not a whole lot. Game developer, Sarah Jane Avory however, has found that 16kb is just enough to create a fantastic, hectic, futuristic vertical scrolling space shoot-'em-up.

Neutron was created for the 2019 RGCD's C64 16KB Cartridge GameDev Compo. Although the game has been coded for PAL, it will run quite happily on an NTSC machine, just at a faster speed. Submissions for the contest opened on December 22nd 2018 and closed on July 1st 2019. For the contest to go ahead a minimum of six entries are required to be submitted by the deadline date and time. Prizes include winners receiving their games on a physical cartridge as well as trophies and other prizes awarded to the entrants that place first, second and third as decided by the judging panel.

Back in the 1980s, Sarah loved playing the arcade game Star Force. She had coded her own version of it on the C64, which she just happened to name Neutron. Sarah completed the development of the game.

Unfortunately, the company she was working for, Orpheus, closed down before it could be released. Sarah did keep all the files, but as time passed by, and in the midst of moving house many years later, she saw no reason for keeping all her old computers.

Unfortunately, she binned everything, including all her old disks. Sarah mentions that she feels rather foolish looking back now for doing so, but I think many of us have binned our machines or sold them off for whatever reason... only to want them back. Fast forward to the present, and after suffering a bit of burnout while writing lots of novels (Sarah is also a self-published author), Sarah decided to have a bit of fun and code some C64 games.

After coming across the 16Kb cartridge competition, Sarah decided to enter that, and thought Neutron would be ideal. So Neutron has been re-born and this time, with the benefit of lots of coding experience, this game is much improved in every way from the original Neutron game. Sarah has mentioned that there will be a future release where she will be making a possibly disk but definitely a 512k cartridge version of the game, with both PAL and NTSC support.

From a top down perspective, you control a fighting spaceship within a generously-sized, vertically-scrolling world. Hordes of enemy waves attack you from the top of the screen and move towards you. Either manoeuvre your ship out of the way of incoming enemy attacks or shoot the enemy down before they disappear off the screen. If you don't dispatch the enemy or avoid them, then get ready for the mass explosion as they crash into you at full speed, killing you instantly.

Neutron consists of nine challenging levels of increasing difficulty with approximately 18 different enemy types, including mid-level and end-of-level bosses, three different background styles and, most importantly, weapon power-ups! It's a classic shoot-'em-up genre done to death so there will be no problems in grasping, or getting into the game once it has been loaded. Controls are either joystick or keys.

The first level is quite easy, so the feeling of progressing further and wanting to play more can be an addiction. The music and tunes are terrific, my ears are more into the game than my eyes, I could listen to the sounds of Neutron all day. Visually it's impressive too. Very good use of colours and the sprite multiplexer works wonderfully well.

In most circumstances the game is smooth and has a decent amount of collision detection. The power-up feature is great as are the end of level and mini bosses. The level design has been well thought out, seemingly with a degree of respect to the eventual gamer being able to enjoy playing it.

Sprite design gives it the 8-bit coolness feel all over. The inclusion of boss battles makes it more entertaining and the bosses look like real ‘bad ass’ bosses.

There seems to be no way to gain any extra lives. I also found there seemed to be some slowness at times in the responsiveness of moving around the screen to avoid enemies as well as in the act of shooting at the enemy.

Couldn't there have been more power-ups? I think so, but then that would have meant more memory space taken up, that the game just doesn't have available. So it will be interesting to see what the full version will be like when finished.

With just 16kb to create a game, Sarah Jane Avory has brought her original Neutron game back to life in spectacular fashion. Neutron is a classic shoot-'em-up that you will find very hard to put down and not play.

A fantastic game with so many impressive features, you will definitely have a lot of fun playing Neutron. As a testament to how popular Neutron is, Sarah Jane Avory received first place in the Retro Gamer Nation, C64 Best Game Awards of 2019.