Thrust 30 - Hayes Maker Games celebrates the 30th anniversary of Jeremy Smith's "Thrust"

I'm sure many retro gamers will remember Thrust, which was first published by Firebird Software Ltd and released in 1986. It also originally came on a multitude of systems including the Atari 2600, Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, BBC Micro, Commodore 16, Plus/4, Commodore 64, Electron, Vectrex, and ZX Spectrum. In fact it was such a popular game, over the years we've had many remakes and ports and this time in celebration of the 30th anniversary of Jeremy Smith's Thrust, Hayes Maker Games with music by legendary C64 composer Matt Gray has made available his version that is playable on PC / Mac or any other HTML5 enabled device!

In regards to the gameplay for thrust, it was and still is an extremely challenging 2D vectored game that required the best of your skills to tractor an orb out from underneath dangerous cave like landscapes and out into space. Most of your time though was spent shooting power stations to shut down weaponry or avoiding smashing into the sides as each over blast of  your thrusters usually meant your ship didn't have enough momentum to pull you back out. And that is just what Thrust 30 is all about, but with a touch more epic!

Sure as I said before there have been many Thrust ports and remakes available on the internet, with some especially bad ones on Android and iOS but I really like this one by Hayes Maker Games. It doesn't have those in your face psychedelic particle effects which feels like you're on a trip, but effects like the wift of smoke pluming out from the power station, really adds to that special touch added on to the already nostalgic vectored graphics.

Now here's where the game really shines and it isn't related to the already cool Thrust gameplay and the temptation to shoot and wipe out power stations for the ultimate destructive score, but the music by Matt Gray. The soundtrack for Thrust 30 is so bloody awesome, you can just tell it's from the legend who is responsible for the soundtracks behind The Last Ninja 2 and Driller, which sadly is still missing from my collection.

( Video Soon? )

So what do I think of it overall and did I find any issues? Well I didn't get the chance to play the Android or iOS version, but I did run into a few niggles with the freely available browser based one. On my old computer I found the turning circle to be too slow, yet on the fast PC with a 1440p monitor, it ran very smooth but the game screen only showed up in one corner. Yet with all that said, it didn't put me off one bit. Thrust 30 is a highly recommend take on Thrust, and I am most impressed with what Hayes Maker Gamers has achieved with this early version and to get Matt Gray's involvement is pretty darn cool too!

-GOG/Steam release possible next year-

So head on over to the main website available ( Here ) and give it a go, you'll not be disappointed!

UPDATE : Demo launched via itch.io

@Hayesmaker @mattgrayc64