Gates of Zendocon (1989)
Action

Publisher	Atari
Developer	Epyx, Inc.

Let's skip the story already -- there's only so many ways to set up a
horizontal-scrolling, shoot-everything-in-sight video game, which is what
GATES OF ZENDOCON is. Your mission is to fly your spaceship through various
scrolling lands, firing lasers and dropping bombs to destroy everything in
your way. There are power-up weapons, but they are few and far between, and a
password feature lets you start the game at any selected level. The ultimate
goal is to stay alive long enough for the final confrontation with Zendocon, a
giant alien who looks like a disembodied brain.

There are a few interesting wrinkles to this title. The game features 51
levels, but you do not go through them linearly. Instead, each level has one
or more "gates", and the next stage you go to depends on which gate you exit
through. Any path you choose will eventually take you to the end, but some
routes are longer and/or harder than others. Your ship has a temporary shield
to repel most attacks, and you can suffer up to three hits before dying. The
first two hits take away your shield and your laser, respectively, and those
can be repaired at the end of a level. Finally, the game can be played in
either "Easy" or "Hard" mode, where the action is twice as fast and the score
is 100 times greater in "Hard" mode.