* Rebelstar series: precursor games to both Laser Squad and the X-COM series, also created by the same developers.

Rebelstar ( 1984 ) and Laser Squad ( 1988 ) were precursors to X-COM created by the same developer, Julian Gollop.

Some of the name choices for characters and organizations in the games of Mythos and Codo are a thread connecting all the Laser Squad and Rebelstar games.

The games in the Rebelstar series achieved critical acclaim, and form the beginning of a development history that led to the Laser Squad and X-COM series.

Codo Technologies has released two games: Laser Squad Nemesis, a PC turn-based tactics game and Rebelstar: Tactical Command, a Game Boy Advance turn-based tactical role-playing game.

The Rebelstar games are a series of turn-based tactics video games designed by Julian Gollop.

Objects are more interactive than in Rebelstar Raiders, with units able to drop or collect weapons, ammunition, dead bodies, and other items.

According to Julian Gollop, developer of X-COM and Rebelstar: Tactical Command, Advance Wars, besides being influential, opened up the market for similar games on handheld video game systems.

Other prominent games developers include Julian Gollop ( Chaos, Rebelstar, X-COM series ), Matthew Smith ( Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy ), Jon Ritman ( Match Day, Head Over Heels ), Jonathan " Joffa " Smith ( Ping Pong, Batman: The Caped Crusader, Mikie, HyperSports ), The Oliver Twins ( the Dizzy series ), Clive Townsend ( Saboteur ), Sandy White ( Ant Attack, I of the mask ), Pete Cooke ( Tau Ceti ), Mike Singleton ( The Lords of Midnight, War In Middle Earth ), and Alan Cox.

Because of the series ' popularity, various developers have created spiritual successor games similar in theme and tone of the X-COM games ( sometimes called " X-COM clones "; Gollop also himself called turn-based tactical game genre in general as " sons of Rebelstar " in a reference to one of his earlier games ).

The game expanded on the ideas applied in their previous Rebelstar series of games.

Rebelstar Raiders was originally released for the 48k ZX Spectrum in 1984 by Red Shift Ltd, a war games publisher who had also released Gollop's space strategy game Nebula.

The Raiders ' squad also includes Captain Krenon, a character who features in the two later Rebelstar games.

All three games in the series were re-released as part of The Rebelstar Collection, a compilation of Gollop's games published in 1991 by Mythos Games.

** In 2005, Codo Technologies and publisher Namco also released the Game Boy Advance turn-based tactics game Rebelstar: Tactical Command, which was as well reminiscent of the early Battlescape system.

The Game Boy Advance would also see the release of Rebelstar: Tactical Command ( 2005 ) by X-COM creators, Nick and Julian Gollop.

Rebelstar Raiders was published in 1984 by Red Shift for the ZX Spectrum personal computer.

It was reworked in machine code as Rebelstar, published by Firebird in 1986.

A sequel, Rebelstar II, was published in 1988 by Silverbird.

Rebelstar, but not its sequel, was also adapted for the Amstrad CPC home computer.

Rebelstar Raiders does not feature a computer-controlled opponent, so is strictly a two-player game.

Rebelstar was originally published in 1986 by Telecomsoft's budget label, Firebird.

The objective for the Raiders in Rebelstar is to destroy ISAAC, the computer responsible for breaking the Raiders ' secret codes.

CRASH gave Rebelstar 93 %, making it a Crash Smash.

The scenario takes place on the planet of Thray 6, on which an alien race is threatening Rebelstar.

CRASH gave Rebelstar II an overall 90 %, highlighting the excellent graphics and engrossing gameplay: " it can all get very exhilarating to see laser bolts flying back and forth, occasionally missing by pixels.

Rebelstar: Psionic Rebellion was a cancelled " high production value AAA title due to be released at the end of 2008, early 2009 on Xbox 360 and PS3 " which was being developed by Kuju Entertainment for Namco.

* Laser Squad Nemesis is a 2002 turn-based low-budget PC turn-based tactics game developed by Gollop's new company, Codo Technologies, very similar to the Battlescape ground combat system of the first X-COM game.

* Laser Squad: a science fiction tactical game by the original creators of X-COM and an immediate predecessor of X-COM ( UFO: Enemy Unknown began development as Laser Squad 2 at first ).

Examples of Amiga games using digitized instrument samples include David Whittaker's soundtrack for Shadow of the Beast, Chris Hülsbeck's soundtrack for Turrican 2 and Matt Furniss's tunes for Laser Squad.

The game was based heavily, and unofficially, on the Alien films, specificially Aliens, and also on the 8-bit-era games Laser Squad and Paradroid ( although the game bears some gameplay similarities with Gauntlet, with which it has been compared, as well an obvious comparison with Sega's Alien Syndrome ).

Originally planned by Julian Gollop as a sequel to Target Games ' 1988 Laser Squad, the game mixes real-time management simulation with turn-based tactics.

Laser is one of Time Squad's best agents, and was voted most likely to become Time Squad commissioner by his graduating class.

Laser Squad is a turn-based tactics video game, originally released for the ZX Spectrum and later for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, MSX, Amiga and Atari ST and PC computers.

The influence of the game can be seen in other titles like the X-COM series, especially the acclaimed UFO: Enemy Unknown which was also created by Julian Gollop and was initially conceived as a sequel to Laser Squad.

Laser Squad is a turn-based tactics war game where the player completes objectives such as rescue or retrieval operations, or simply eliminating all of the enemy, by maneuvering the squad's team members around a map one at a time, taking actions such as move, turn, shoot, pick up and so on that would use up the unit's action points.

', stating that " Laser Squad is one of the hottest games I've ever played.

Many of the Laser Squad mechanics were re-used in the later X-COM series of games, created also by Gollop and Mythos Games but published by MicroProse.

Mythos Games later released a similar game called Lords of Chaos, which had many similarities to Laser Squad but was set in a fantasy genre of wizards, dragons and spell-casting.

The Laser Squad franchise has been revived by Gollop's Codo Technologies with the play-by-email game Laser Squad Nemesis, although this departs from the turn-based action point system and does not have customizable weaponry.

Image: ZX Laser Squad. png | ZX Spectrum

* Laser Squad Flash game