Turrican ROM

Also, be sure to check out T2 – The Arcade Game.

Turrican is a 1990 video game developed by Manfred Trenz. It was developed for the Commodore 64 by Rainbow Arts, and was ported to the Game Boy in 1991. In addition to concept design and character creation, Trenz programmed Turrican on the Commodore 64. The lost colony of Alterra is a completely man-made world in a nearby galaxy, abandoned long ago.

Alterra consists of five self-contained habitats, separately bio-engineered by a powerful ecosystem generation network known as a Multiple Organism Unit Link, or MORGUL for short. Early colonists used MORGUL to render Alterra habitable, but a cataclysmic earthquake severed all system interface functions, and MORGUL murderously rebelled. The few colonists lucky enough to escape told a grim tale of a higher intelligence gone berserk.

Turrican can be described as a cross between Metroid and Psycho-Nics Oscar. While the huge levels and the morph-ball function were inspired by Metroid, the overall graphics design and weapons were inspired by Psycho-Nics Oscar. Unlike many other action games of its time, Turrican did not force the player to complete a linear level. Instead, the player can explore each level and uncover secrets.