Instructions
Swarm Sortie
Bees fly in on swirling paths, hang in formation, then peel off in pairs to dive at you. Hold the line, pick them off as they break, and score five times as much for a diver.
- Year
- 1986
- Era
- Golden Arcade
- Genre
- Arcade / Shoot-em-up
Free, no sign-up. Keyboard, touch or gamepad.
How to play
- Left/Right or drag to move.
- Your ship fires by itself.
- Hold Space to focus (slow, tight shot).
- B or Down drops a bomb.
- P to pause.
On touch
- Drag anywhere to steer; the ship fires on its own.
- Tap BOMB to clear the screen.
Every run starts on the title screen. Pause any time with P or the pause button; calm mode removes flashes and screen shake.
Maker’s note
The golden-age formation shooter, without the capture beam: just a swarm that gets meaner every wave. Each bee dives on its own curve and shoots on the way past, so the whole game is reading the next two divers before they leave the formation. Armoured queens show up from wave three.
The Eracade workshop
Target scores
- 11,500
- 24,000
- 38,000
- 414,000
- 522,000
- 632,000
- 745,000
- 860,000
Each target is a step up. Beat them all and you have outplayed the workshop.
The Golden Arcade era, 1983–1989
Neon on black, chunky sprites and a pocket full of coins: short runs, high scores, one more go.
High scores
The top ten runs are saved in this browser with your three initials. Nothing is uploaded unless you submit a ranked run, so clearing site data clears the table.
