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Not many people know this but the original Phoenix arcade game was the first ever video game to feature what we now know as an end-of-game boss! A new variation on the Space Invaders theme, it was quite a few years before this became a standard feature in shoot-'em-ups. Phoenix also inspired several other classic shooters of the time, such as Gorf and Vanguard, to include one of their own.

Phoenix was developed by Amstar Electronics, who were actually located in Phoenix, Arizona (which I am sure had an influence on the name) in 1980 and quickly snapped up by Centuri, who distributed the game in the United States. Taito then picked up distribution for Japan, which is surprising given that it was in direct competition with their own game Space Invaders game, but it also shows just how popular and successful the game had become. The BBC had several clones of the game released for it, most notably Alligata's Eagle Empire, but none of them quite got it right, so it's great to see somebody creating a definite version.

As already mentioned, Phoenix is a single screen shooter very much in the vein of the legendary Space Invaders, but probably shares more in common with Namco's classic Galaxian. The game is made up of several stages that end in the boss/mothership stage and these repeat making it harder each time. The first of these stages plays very much like Galaxian in fact, with little aliens that both shoot and dive bomb you as you try to take them out.

Then you move onto the flying bird stages where you meet the titular phoenix birds themselves and the action really heats up. These invading enemies have big flapping wings and can only be killed by shooting them dead in the centre. Hit them either side and it just removes one of their wings! This is an incredibly cool feature, especially as these wings will grow back if you leave them long enough. Then you face the final boss in the form of a giant mothership where you must shoot through to the cockpit and kill the pilot (something that was copied in Gorf).

This giant craft keeps descending on you, shooting all the time, meaning you have to take it out as quick as possible. Another very original feature of Phoenix is the shield, this can be activated by pressing down on the joystick and protects your craft for a few seconds at a time. While this is active you can't move or shoot back though, so it's purely a defensive manoeuvre. Another unusual feature for a game of this time.

Graphically the game is almost identical to the arcade, I've said it before and I'll say it again - the BBC's bright and bold colour palette is extremely well suited to recreating these early coin-op classics authentically. Richard has also done a rather sterling job at getting the audio right too and both the sound effects and music are pretty damn close to the arcade original. These old arcade classics also offer tremendous replay value, as you repeatedly try to beat your high score, so this is definitely a game that you will come back to from time to time too.

I think perhaps the only real moan I can make is that the released version still has a few odd graphical glitches that need cleaning up. I am sure these will all be cleaned up in due course though as the programmer as assured us that this is just a pre-release version and there will be another more polished one coming later on. I suppose you could argue that it's a bit slower than the arcade game too, but this doesn't really detract from the gameplay that much.

Phoenix has always been a real favourite of mine and undoubtedly one of the most under rated games of its era. This port is certainly not going to disappoint any fans of the original coin-op and is yet another superb arcade conversion to add to the BBC Micro's already very long list!