The Last Ace
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v1.0 July 26th 2008

The Last Ace is a horizontal scrolling shooter inspired by the shmups of old, particularly Sky Kid, Gradius and Darius. It is freeware.


An urgent telegram from Sky Command
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Courageous Pilot,

The Bureau of Defense has seen fit to allow you to pilot our new prototype fighter in a last ditch effort to win the war and take back our lands from Count Skov and his Five Lions Coalition. Additionally, Sky Command has been authorized to reward you with five steinguilder for each second you stay alive in battle - that figure doubles when you are striking fear into the heart of the enemy by barnstorming. As well, you'll earn extra compensation for each aggressor that you destroy. Now don your lucky red scarf and take to the skies!

For the Duchy, always.

Admiral Von Luftwagon, Sky Command


Controls
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Keyboard:

Move up arrow up
Move down arrow down
Move left arrow left
Move right arrow right
Shoot spacebar
Pause backspace
Exit esc


Gameplay
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Fly over battlefields across the Duchy of Bierenburg, and send the enemy to their fiery deaths for fun and profit. For every second you stay alive, you earn five steinguilders. However, if you are in the bottom part of the screen, the Barnstormer Bonus (BSB) will activate (indicated by the appearance of an icon in the lower-right corner of the screen), giving you ten steinguilders for every second you stay alive. Additional money is earned by destroying enemy units. You are given four lives - no continues, no 1ups. Top earning pilots get immortalized in the High Score Table (yeah!).


Intelligence Reports
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-There are reports of the existence of a secret underground tunnel in the Meadows that Count Skov's forces are using to transport troops and supplies to the front line. Finding it would yield you a healthy bonus as well as the cash that would come from destroying what's within.

-Over the course of the war, we've lost some decorated officers. Unfortunately, we had to leave them in crude graves in the battlefield. These brave men deserve a proper burial - find their graves among the rest of our fallen and bring them home so that they may rest in peace. There is one in each area. Finding them will be difficult however, as nothing distinguishes their graves from those of the enemy and our other soldiers. But if you manage to recover them all, there may be something special in it for you.

-Shoot everything. You never know what may happen.

-To maximize your earnings, in general try to stay in the BSB area as much as possible. However there are times when you should leave it for other earning opportunities. Find the optimum path through each level to earn big $$$.

-Be aware that being in the BSB area is often more dangerous than flying at higher altitudes.


Known Major Issues
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Occasionally collision events between player bullets and enemies does not occur. This seems to happen when the bullet makes contact with the periphery of the enemy sprite.

You can unpause the game by pressing any key, rather than just backspace.


Credits
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All game design, art, coding, music and SFX by Kevin Oke, except score and high-score table font ("Arcade Classic"😉 by Jakob Fischer. (C) Kevin Oke 2008.

Special thanks to Darren.

Tags: shooter, shmup, shoot, em, up, horizontal, gradius, sky, kid, arcade, retro, oldschool, nes, side, scroller, scrolling, the, last, ace

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