Alcon

This game is an addictive and very playable shoot-em-up that features good graphics and music. The object is to shoot air and ground targets while collecting gold stars.

These stars allow you to purchase various power-ups such as Laser, Homing Missiles, Bomb, and Shield. If you have the Laser, you will be able to shoot the highly rewarding plants that grow out of the terrain. If you have the Homing Missiles, various flip targets will be uncovered and destroyed. If you have Shot, you will be able to destroy a hidden, bonus Space Invader. If you have Shot and full wingpods, you may spawn a robotic wingman that flies and shoots freely around the screen. Furthermore, certain targets are more susceptible to some weapons than others.

The game has a mostly non-stop flow, and while there are intermediate bosses, the scrolling continues so that one does not have the usual sense of completing stages until the very last boss. At that point, the game map wraps around. The end-of-level bosses get nastier as the game progresses. While all enemies and their reward stars appear in the same map location, your foes fire more frequently at each successive wrap.

There is an excellent hidden cheat. If you do not fire at game start and allow yourself to die, you will restart with the maximum size ship with Homing Missiles nice touch. Also, the longer you manage to stay alive this first time, the larger your cheat bonus will be. You can avoid dying fairly easily by staying on top of the enemy. They will not fire at you within a specific area around them.

TIP: There is one major strategic element which is not obvious to most. Whenever the player selects Wing for additional pods of the current weapon type, or changes weapon type entirely, there is a grace period of about two seconds during which all enemy shots will pass right through the ship.

The game was released in the UK, probably Europe too, under the name of Slap Fight.

What does ALCON stand for? Here is some interesting background information, taken from the box of Taito's C64 port of this game:

The year is 2059. Humans have been living in exile on the planet Theon since aliens attacked their last home, Orac, in 2055.P...The Allied League of Cosmic Nations ALCON has chosen you to pilot the top secret experimental SW475 Starfighter. You are the last hope there is to stop the enemy takeover. To reclaim the planet, you must destroy the aliens once and for all. There will not be a second chance.