| Oids | |
|---|---|
 Cover art by David Darrow | |
| Developer(s) | FTL |
| Publisher(s) | FTL |
| Designer(s) | Dan Hewitt |
| Programmer(s) | Dan Hewitt |
| Artist(s) | Dan Hewitt |
| Platform(s) | Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh |
| Release | 1987: Atari ST[1] 1990: Mac[2] 2014: Amiga[3] |
| Genre(s) | Multidirectional shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Oids is a multidirectional shooter developed and self-published by FTL Games in 1987. The game was originally released on the Atari ST, followed by a B&W version for the classic 68k Macintosh in 1990. The Atari ST version, written by Dan Hewitt, was a cult favourite in the UK, where it received rave reviews.
The game follows in the footsteps of shoot 'em ups such as Asteroids (1979), Gravitar (1982), Defender and Thrust (1986), with its "thrust-and-rotate" controls, inertia and gravity-based movement, 360 degree shooting and manually-operated shield. The main activity in the game is rescuing abused android slaves (the "Oids" of the title), and there is rather more emphasis on arcade action than the slower-paced gameplay of Gravitar and Thrust.
In 2002, Kirk Baker – one of the original authors of the Mac Classic version – released OIDS.X 2.0 for Mac OS X which supported PowerPC machines on System 7. It added glorious colour, and was an authorized shareware version of the original Oids.
A year later (2003), a version of OIDS.X was released for Mac OS X, which added support for OpenGL which resulted in smoother gameplay. All the sounds were recreated in 16-bit CD-quality, and all the graphics were redone by Drew Pauley, Bill Densmore, and Kirk Baker.