Iridium is retro styled 2D shoot 'em up taking inspiration from: Uridium, Xenon 2 Mega Blast and Nemesis / Gradius. Each game in its own right is considered a classic by many people. Each offered some very unique features including massive ships, upgrade shops, in-level upgrades and a multitude of weapons.

The game is a horizontal shoot 'em up where the player is allowed free movement around the level in a similar manner to Uridium. Unlike Uridium there are many weapon and ship upgrades available to purchase during each level. Later in-between levels the player visits the upgrade shop where more powerful weapon blueprints are available.

In the year 4096 Earth and its commonwealth of systems has expanded across a large proportion of our home galaxy. The avalanche of human expansion did not begin until 2801 just a few decades after the development of wormhole technology. With no alien contact and the fact that the human race had been at peace for over 1000 years the military had reduced in size to the point where it is little more than a home world defence force. The huge warships of the past were stranded in the system they were produced in due to being too large to travel by

wormhole. Most were scrapped, some were sold off and converted into cruise ships.

The Iridium project |began in 3496 |with the aim of producing a small cheap scout ship. Its initial purpose was to find new planets to colonize without the need for a full-blown wormhole which are very costly and potentially dangerous to open.

It was 4083 when an outlying colony reported strange lights in the sky. Then the colony went silent and its wormhole link was unexpectedly severed. It took 6 months to establish a new wormhole. When it was finally reopened a team was sent through. The devastation discovered was immense, there were no survivors.

Since then 142 of a total 209 colonies have been attacked and destroyed. The distances and time between each attack seem to be consistent with an enemy who travels using FTL rather than wormholes. The underlying direction is that of heading for Earth. The Commonwealth defence force having limited military options returned to project Iridium as their only hope. The small scout craft has now been transformed into a rapid attack craft. With over 500 years for advancement it has been equipped with inertial dampening for rapid 180 turns, high powered shields which would put all previous ships to shame and a new Iridium alloy hull stronger than any other material ever produced. This coupled with a dynamic and adaptable weapons system is the last hope for the human race. We have an estimated 2 years to turn it around or face extermination!