games and movies, and was built on top of a previous game, "Survive", developed by GEC Marconi. Author Andrew Braybrook said in a Retro Gamer interview that the droid-swapping idea came from an arcade game, Front Line, where the player could enter a tank and had to leave it when it got hit. In another Retro Gamer feature, Braybrook also stated that the cover of the Black Sabbath album Technical Ecstasy influenced him, where two droids "interfacing" can be observed, along with the corridors of the movie Aliens. Development started right after Braybrook finished his previous game Gribbly's Day Out and even shared some code with Gribbly's. Later when Braybrook was working on Morpheus he did another diary for Zzap!64 where he revealed that the then recently released Competition Edition of Paradroid was 50% faster than the original. In the same series he revealed that they had redone the Paradroid graphics in the new (Morpheus) style, which was later released as Heavy Metal Paradroid. Andrew Braybrook did another diary during the development of Paradroid 90 for Amiga Action. Versions 1985 – Paradroid 1986 – Paradroid Competition Edition – Released as a double pack at Christmas with Uridium+, plays faster than the original, mainly due to scroll code enhancements. 1987 – Heavy Metal Paradroid – Paradroid with Morpheus style graphics (budget release in 1989). 1990 – Paradroid 90 (Commodore Amiga, Atari ST) 1993 – Paradroid 2000 (Acorn Archimedes) Reception The game has been heralded as one of the best original games to appear on the Commodore 64, as can be seen when the readers of Retro Gamer selected it as the best game on the platform: Also in a 2002 Zzap!64 tribute publication, Paradroid via a community vote was ranked the best C64 game ever with the comment "there is something about Paradroid that sets it apart from other C64 games". When it originally came out it received 97 out of 100 in the Zzap!64 November 1985 issue with the comment "THE classic shoot em up" and receiving a "Gold Medal" where 98% is the highest score ever given in the magazine, once again 97 out of 100 with the remark "A game no C64 gamer should be without", in 1989 for the re-issued "Heavy Metal" Edition. In November 1988 it was selected the second best Shoot 'em up on the C64 and in December the same year it was selected