DemonStar (1997)

Mac: 2003

*The page is written based on the v1.1 demo and the v4.04 full game.*

## The Game

DemonStar (aka DemonStar Classic) is a shareware shoot ‘em up game. The goal of the game is to fly through 18 levels full of enemy units (usually spaceships) and destroy the boss in each of them. The game has four difficulty levels and can be played using the mouse, keyboard or joystick / gamepad. It can be played by one or two people (local or LAN multiplayer).

The free demo of the game contains the first 6 levels and is missing some collectibles.

In the full version of the game Level 1 has a black hole, which teleports the player to Level 7 upon entering. This unlocks Levels 2-7 in the Warp tab if they weren't unlocked before.

### Gameplay

#### Lives and Health

The player starts out with 4 lives. When all the player ship icons are gone, it means there’s only one left. The durability of the player’s ship is represented by the blue bar. It can be restored with some collectibles, and it’s fully restored when a new level starts. Extra lives can be earned by gaining a lot of score points.

If the player loses all their lives, they're given a 10 seconds countdown with the option to continue the level with their stats reset. However, an instant Game Over can occur if the player loses all their lives again.

#### Levels

The odd-numbered levels take place in the outer space, the even-numbered ones - above the surfaces of different planets. The levels are filled with enemy units, bonus carriers, meteoroids (outer space levels only) and artificial constructions. The bonus carriers and some enemies contain collectibles. Some ships don’t blow up fully at once, so the player must avoid the wreckage until it explodes again. There’s no requirement for the number of enemy units or objects destroyed. Some constructions can only be bombed.

**Level List**

1. Outer Space
2. Desert Base
3. Outer Space
4. Fuel Refinery
5. Outer Space
6. Ore Planet
7. Outer Space
8. Water Planet
9. Outer Space
10. Industry Planet
11. Outer Space
12. Research Moon
13. Outer Space
14. Farming Planet
15. Outer Space
16. Volcanic Moon
17. Outer Space
18. DemonStar Base

Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4Level 5Level 6Level 7Level 8Level 9Level 10Level 11Level 12Level 13Level 14Level 15Level 16Level 17Level 18
#### Weapons

As the player starts the game, they have a weak laser and carry 3 bombs. There are various weapon collectibles to help the player destroy enemies faster.

#### Bosses

The bosses are typically larger than regular mobs and can endure far greater damage. Many of them shoot lasers which can one-shot the player’s ship, but those can only shoot straight down to the bottom of the screen.

Boss 1Boss 2Boss 3Boss 4Boss 5Boss 6Boss 7Boss 8Boss 9Boss 10Boss 11Boss 12Boss 13Boss 14Boss 15Boss 16Boss 17Boss 18After the player beats the final boss, the game restarts with the next difficulty level, and the player’s stats carry over.

### Collectibles

#### Weapons

##### Lasers

Lasers are primary, infinite weapons. Each type of laser can be upgraded up to 6 times by picking up round collectibles with the letter “S” of the same color, the collectibles’ color changes periodically (yellow to blue to red to yellow and so on). If the player takes a collectible of another color, their laser will change and get reset to starting power. Heavy damage may reduce laser power. When the player’s ship gets blown up, it drops 1-2 collectibles matching their laser at the moment of destruction, except Magnetic Pulse results in Plasma Cannon collectibles.

If the player picks up a matching laser collectible but their laser is already maxed out, it will shoot strong bullets in all directions. The Magnetic Pulse bullets home on targets like the laser itself.

* Proton Laser – Fires yellow lasers in multiple directions.
* Ion Cannon – Fires several blue beams forward.
* Plasma Cannon – Fires a red beam at a high rate forward, with particles on the sides.
* Magnetic Pulse – Fires a homing orange beam. The collectible for this laser is rare, and if it changes color it won’t turn orange again.
* Full Power – Instantly upgrades the current laser to maximum power.

Proton LaserIon CannonPlasma CannonMagnetic PulseFull Power
##### Bombs

Bombs are secondary, finite weapons. The player starts out with 3 bombs (Mega Bombs for Player 1, Scatter Bombs for Player 2) and can hold up to 6 of them. Their collectibles are polygons with the letter “B”, which change color between yellow and red. Whenever a Mega Bomb or a Scatter Bomb explodes, all enemy bullets and lasers on the screen disappear. If the player preserves any bombs until the end of the level they get bonus points.

* Mega Bomb – Functions as a single bomb with big range. Its collectible is yellow.
* Scatter Bomb – Functions as a bunch of small-range bombs. Its collectible is red.
* Mega Pulses – This rare weapon is categorized as a bomb, but it’s actually a solid laser similar to the ones shot by the bosses, it fires for a few seconds. Its collectible is blue, if it changes color it won’t come back again.

Mega BombScatter BombMega Pulses
##### Missiles

Missiles are finite weapons which are fired together with the laser. Their collectibles change color between blue and red. The blue Missiles fly straight to the top of the screen, the red Homing Missiles lock onto targets.

##### Side and Rear Shooters

These fire shots from the sides and the back of the ship. Their collectibles change periodically, their updated designs use red and blue colors respectively. Each can be upgraded up to 3 times.

#### Durability Restorers

A Crystal restores 1 HP, Energy bonuses (these have the letter “E”, not to be confused with the Ion Cannon bonus) fully restore durability. If the player is at low health and destroys anything that should contain a Crystal it will spawn an Energy bonus instead.

#### Medals

    Medals reward 1000 points each at the end of the level, but only if the player can carry them until the end of the level without losing a life.

#### Shields

    Shields are rare collectibles which provide complete invulnerability for a few seconds. They’re always followed by large enemy waves.

### V4.04 Versus V1.1 Comparison

* New logo
* New full screen mode background
* The player ships, some enemy ships and bonus crates are redesigned
* Redesigned collectibles
* Remade explosion VFX
* Speaking human characters with portraits have been added. Instead of a disembodied voice saying “mission begin”, a representative from Terran Base says “fighters launched”. The player pilots share voicelines and look the same except for the color of their headwear. They speak when their laser is fully upgraded, and when they approach a boss and defeat it.

Game in fullscreen and logo, oldGame in fullscreen and logo, newPlayer ships, oldPlayer ships, new

## References

The game’s page on the official website: https://www.mking.com/DemonStar.html

https://www.mobygames.com/game/demonstar

Manual (v1.1, unsupported by modern operating systems): https://www.dropbox.com/s/45ngzf0kie96vhw/DSTAR.HLP?dl=0

Fanmade manual (version not specified): https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/250532-demonstar/faqs/18232

## Trivia

* As of 2022, the game costs 4.99$, which is about 1/4 of the price it had in 1998: 19.95$ (see image below).
* It's possible to finish the game in less than 1 hour 20 minutes without Warp, and less than 50 minutes with Warp, depending on how efficiently you deal with the bosses.
* The updated designs of the player spaceships and collectibles are also used in DemonStar: Secret Missions and DemonStar: Secret Missions 2.
	+ High-quality collectible renders can be seen in the manual for DS:SM. The manual can no longer be accessed normally and requires Wayback Machine to view. https://web.archive.org/web/20200217164602/http://www.mking.com/demonstarsm1/help/bonus.html
* It’s technically possible to assign the same controls for both players, making them perform the same actions.
* After you destroy a boss completely, you can pause and resume to skip the level results.
* There are only two kinds of non-boss enemies that shoot deadly lasers, they appear in Levels 4 and 18.
* On Levels 7 and 9, large crystal meteoroids may drop Crystals when destroyed.
* There’s a bug where if the player ship picks up a laser bonus during the demo (CPU showing the gameplay), then the player starts a new game before the demo ends, the laser will carry over into the game.
* Although the player spaceships are redesigned in newer versions, the game’s desktop icon still uses the original design.
* The player avatars can be replaced with custom ones. They must be in BMP format with 8-bit color depth (256 colors) and use the resolution 24x24.
* The ionos.com domain no longer belongs to the game distributor ionos. It's now owned by the web hosting company Ionos.
	+ Wayback Machine has captures of the game distributor website from late 1996 to 1998.

### Bosses

* Among the bosses there are 14 spaceships, 3 land vehicles and 1 submarine.
* The Level 1 boss is the only one to fire missiles.
* The Level 5 boss appears on the game's cover artwork and demo exit screen.
* The Level 15 boss uses only one kind of weapon.
* The Level 17 boss is the most mobile and smallest one. Magnetic Pulse is strongly recommended.

### Music

* The game’s soundtrack was composed by Robert Caskin Prince III (aka Bobby Prince), who’s known for his musical work in Duke Nukem 3D and Doom.
* The High Scores screen uses a short version of the music for Levels 3 and 11.
* On the modern operating systems, the music may not loop and/or it may be off-tune.
* (Observed in v1.1) In the demo, Level 6 has no music.