Crop Circles & Shoot Em ups...

[retroborg]

Swiv was one of the best shooters I had played on the good ‘ol Amiga back in the day. I loved its detailed & varied levels, the numerous enemy waves and the imposing laser beams of the bosses.
However, what I found very noticeable & interesting, were the Crop Circles left behind by an indestructible weird looking ship, as it flew away at the waste-lands in level 2.
This ship was completely different to any other you encounter in the game and its Alien-look & orientation is evident, leaving a direct innuendo of the “origins” of the crop-circles on earth.







Interestingly it looked very similar to the actual crop-circles scattered around the world:

The following look ideal for shoot em ups...
This one in particular looks similar to the one in Swiv:



This looks exactly like the ship sprite from Crisis Zone on the NES!





And doesn’t this remind you of the enemy waves in Project X on the AMIGA?







So it would seem that many Shoot Em Up artists were influenced by the crop-circles and their mysterious sci-fi themes after all!

[guns1inger]

I would suggest it is the other way around. Given Crop circles are a man-made phenomena, and some of these games are older than most crop circles, I suspect that crop circle makers were influenced by the ideas in video games.

And please don't try to tell me that crop circles are extraterrestrial unless you have some proof that none of the other crop circle advocates have - because frankly, they don't have squat.

[retroborg]

Would suggest it is the other way around. Given Crop circles are a man-made phenomena, and some of these games are older than most crop circles, I suspect that crop circle makers were influenced by the ideas in video games.

For Project X & Crisis Zone maybe, but I don't think that's the case with Swiv. Those types of crop circles are the basic ones that have been observed countless times since the 70's (A lot before Swiv and the rest of these shooters were created) and don’t seem to be influenced from any specific object or structure…

And please don't try to tell me that crop circles are extraterrestrial unless you have some proof that none of the other crop circle advocates have - because frankly, they don't have squat

Me? Hell No!
But that's exactly what the creators of Swiv are implying... in a fun / artistic kind of way...
And judging by their character portraits, I doubt they were actually trying to be serious…