And talking of into-the-screen multi-level shoot-'em-ups (We were? Ed), heres Oppy Wolf - which you people will no doubt have heard of as it was a bit of a biggy in its day, and has since launched a thousand clones, including its big brother Operation Thunderbolt, the sequel. But let's just re-cap what it's all about in case you've forgotten, ok readers?
The coin-op's main distinguishing feature was a whopping great gun bolted onto the front of the machine - used to shoot 'into' the screen as everything is viewed from fancy first person perspective (whilst the screen scrolls sideways). In this case, "everything" consists of a variety of enemy soldiers who run in front and lob grenades and knives, a cursor quite adequately taking the place of the gun on the Spec. Helichoppers, boats and tanks are also present and can be either shot with your gun, or more effectively grenaded, although ammo is strictly limited, but can be replenished by shooting things on the ground.
The Spec version was one of the fastest conversions, so three cheers for that, and three cheers for the graphics too - monochrome, yes, but they still chug along at a cracking pace, and hardly even slow when the screen is jam-packed with baddies. It's really playable too as you have to get through six different levels, rescuing the hostages, without losing all your energy, and it's all very addictive. Perhaps too addictive actually, because the more hardened gamesplayer is likely to find that he/she/it may very well polish the thing off in an afternoon after only a minimal number of goes. But if you're one of those people who wouldn't mind this, and seeing as you'll only be three pounds out of pocket at the end of the day, I'd say that it's still well worth it. Go buy.