Hell Rider

HELL RIDER is a maze blaster inspired by Night Stalker and the golden age of home consoles. Laser bolts, phantom tech, and that early-’80s tension in your fingertips. No tutorials. No mercy. Just you, the labyrinth… and what’s hunting you inside.
Built for PICO-8.

Controls

• D-PAD / Cursor keys — move
• Hold Z while standing still — aim + fire (use directions)

Rules

• Only enemy shots can kill you
• Everything else is pressure, panic, and positioning
• Watch the robots. Learn their patterns
• Once a robot fires, it can’t fire again until its shot is gone
• Survive by positioning, not reflex alone
•  The bunker offers temporary safety but it won’t hold forever

 

Credits

Inspired by Night Stalker (Mattel Intellivision)
Steve Montero (design/programming)
Peter Allen (graphics)
Russ Lieblich (sound)
Bat & spider sprites: IvoryRed — CC BY 4.0
Explosion FX: atzlochtlan — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Game code, systems, design:
Francesco (Lemsoft)  with the assistance of ChatGPT

 License

CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
(Attribution • Non-commercial • Share alike)

 A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

I can’t code. Not really. So I became the director… and ChatGPT became my co-pilot. This wasn’t magic. It was iteration. Pixel-by-pixel movement tuning, token limits, broken builds, fixes, fatigue… and the stubborn will to keep going. Without this process, Hell Rider would have stayed in my head.

FUN FACT (feel free to skip)

“Hell Rider” isn’t a new name for me. Back in the day, my group of friends and I (we called ourselves Lemsoft because we loved Atarisoft) started a game called Hell Rider on the Texas Instruments TI-99/4A — yes, in assembly. I handled the graphics and the ideas. The game was closer to Pitfall II than Night Stalker, and we even had chunks of levels drawn on the ZX Spectrum and exported as SCREEN$ for the TI.
Then time ran out, school pulled us apart, and the project died unfinished.
So if this new Hell Rider gives you even a few minutes of that “’80s player mode” feeling, I’ll be genuinely happy.