Developer: Ambrosia Software
Price: Shareware $15.00, $5.00 upgrade, Trial first 15 levels without registration
Requirements: Power Macintosh G3 or better, MacOS 8.0 or later, MacOS X 10.2 or later

Many long-term Mac users have fond memories of Ambrosia Software’s gaming adaptations of 1980s arcade classics. Apeiron was an interpretation of Atari’s successful Centipede and Millipede, but with fancier graphics, sound effects, and slightly more varied game features. With the release of ApeironX, Ambrosia brings this gaming classic to OS X.

ApeironX, like it’s namesake, takes the Centipede/Millipede concept to new levels. Unlike the arcade versions which demanded repeated quarters, ApeironX doesn’t kill the player after only a few minutes of gameplay. Extra lives and other bonuses are much easier to obtain, and ApeironX’s gameplay is generally less-frantic and slightly slower than it’s arcade ancestors. Clearing the first few-dozen waves are relatively simple but rapidly become more challenging as the game progresses.

For the few who may not be familiar with the classic non-scrolling 2-D shooters, ApeironX is a deceptively simple game. You start with three lives. Bad-guys usually appear at the top of the screen and must be shot before they reach the bottom, where your shooter is limited to the bottom 20% of the screen. If an enemy touches you, you’re dead. Kill all of the required enemies and you advance to the next, more difficult level. To make things more challenging, there are mushrooms randomly interspersed throughout the gaming screen that block movement and clear shots of the baddies.

The main enemies on each level are the Pentipedes, a regenerating segmented bug. Every time a segment of the Pentipede is shot, it leaves behind another mushroom to interfere with your mission of carnage. If the Pentipede is shot in the middle, the insect splits in half and multiple bugs moving separately continue their path down the screen. When a Pentipede segment reaches the bottom of the screen, new individual segments rapidly appear from the sides of the screen until all are killed. All Pentipedes must be killed to advance.

Other enemies include: Groucho, a flea-tick creature that plants new mushrooms; Larry, a scorpion-lobster than eats mushrooms and tries to run into your shooter; Gordon, a gecko that creates red mushrooms which hasten the Pentipede’s path to the bottom of the screen; and a one-eyed alien in a spaceship that flies through blowing up mushrooms.

Bonuses are gathered to add points, extra lives, or new features to help kill bugs. These are obtained by shooting a bonus multiplier, shooting a flashing psychedelic mushroom, and gathering coins. Each is only available for a limited time and will disappear with a resounding raspberry sound effect if not collected.

While ApeironX offers the same overall graphics as the 90s version, they have been improved to offer more depth and generally appear smoother than the original. The enemies and bonus items are recognizable to both users of the original Apeiron and those only familiar with the arcade classics.

The mouse is a perfect game controller for this 2-D shooter format, seamlessly replacing its cousin the trackball. The game responds perfectly to mouse movements and offers “auto-repeated” shots when the mouse button is held down.

A new feature in ApeironX is optional high score interaction with the Ambrosia website. When a new high score is created, users have the option of reporting their high score for comparison to other players.

Results: Excellent

ApeironX doesn’t have the sophisticated 3D graphics and online competition many modern gamers demand, but it offers simple and satisfying gameplay that can rapidly become addictive. Many arcade adaptations simply “dress up” the arcade original with fancier graphics and sound effects, but Apeiron actually goes one step further to improve over the originals. Some of the simple gameplay additions in Apeiron are so obvious (such as coin-collecting bonus frenzies that often distract the player and get them killed, reflected bullets, and mushrooms that dislodge and fall when shot) that it is surpising they were not included in the arcade originals.

An axiom of game design is that great games are easy to learn but hard to master, and prove challenging without being frustrating. Apeiron X meets these classic requirements.