Ammotrack

The game was designed by John M. Phillips, a legendary 16-bit era developer (also the creator of Nebulus). Originally, Ammotrack was the working title and preliminary game engine for what would become Eliminator, published by Hewson. Although it resembles a tech demo, it was widely distributed, notably via magazine cover disks like ST Action. You pilot a heavily armed futuristic vehicle on a 3D track suspended in space. The goal is to speed along while avoiding crashes or being destroyed. It's a hybrid between a racing game (time trial with checkpoints) and a shoot 'em up. You must destroy opponents blocking your path to collect power-ups (fuel, time, missiles). The game uses a third-person perspective with an impressive depth effect for its time, offering a great sense of speed and fluidity. For a game from 1988, it made good use of the Atari ST's capabilities with vibrant colors (up to 21 simultaneously in-game) and very fast scrolling.