Salamander (1987)

Salamander was released in 1987 for the ZX Spectrum 48K. The game was published by Konami Ltd and developed by Andrew J. Glaister and Stuart J. Ruecroft.

This arcade shoot-em-up supports up to two players. The gameplay features both horizontal and vertical scrolling, multiple boss fights, and multi-genre elements. Controls include Kempston joystick, Interface 2, cursor keys, and redefineable keys. The technical implementation utilizes a custom screen loader, with the gameplay area occupying less than 50% of the screen.

The cassette version was priced at £7.95. Other versions of the game were released for Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, and NES.

The game holds an average magazine score of 72.34% across nine reviews. ACE awarded it 881 out of 1000, while Crash magazine rated it 79%.

The game gained recognition in the Soviet Union through cracked cassette versions by groups like Fantomsoft and Master Studio. Players often used POKE codes published in the Spectrofon magazine, and several TR-DOS adaptations were released by teams such as Flash Inc and Triumph.