Blue Max (video game)

Blue Max
The C64 version (running under VICE). Player is about to take off.
Developer(s)	Synapse Software
Publisher(s)	Synapse Software U.S. Gold
Designer(s)	Bob Polin
Platform(s)	Atari 8-bit (original) Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
Release date(s)	1983
Genre(s)	Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	Single player

Blue Max is a video game written by Bob Polin for the Atari 8-bit family and published by Synapse Software in 1983. It was released for the Commodore 64 the same year, and in 1984 it was ported to the ZX Spectrum by U.S. Gold. In 1987 Atari Corp. published it in cartridge form for the then-new Atari XEGS.

The player controls a Sopwith Camel biplane during World War I, attempting to shoot down enemy planes and bomb targets on the diagonally scrolling terrain. It has strong similarities to the arcade game Zaxxon. The game is named after the medal Pour le Mérite, informally known as Blue Max. Its theme song is "Rule, Britannia!".

In 1984, Synapse released a sequel, Blue Max 2001, with a futuristic setting, but otherwise similar in design to the original.

The game opens with the player's aircraft parked on a runway while the theme - a rendition of "Rule, Britannia!" - plays. After selecting from various control and difficulty options and pressing start, the screen shows the aircraft speeding up down the runway. The player is required to push the joystick in order to take off, but not before the plane reaches a certain minimum speed. From then on the screen scrolls diagonally in the fashion of Zaxxon, using oblique projection to simulate three-dimensionality. The player can move left and right, forward and backward, or raise or lower their altitude with the joystick. The fire button shoots the machine guns continually, while pressing and moving the stick down at the same time causes a bomb to drop.

The game is divided into several areas, each one ending with a runway on which the player should land. The first area consists of a large river on the left side of the screen and a grassy treed area on the right. In the second area the river eventually gives way to land and roads filled with tanks and enemy airbases. The third and final area is the city, composed of skyscrapers and bunkers, destruction of which is the main goal of the game.