MAGPIE

It's swooping season. The sky is yours. The people below are about to have a very bad day.

Forget saving the world. You're a magpie, and you've got a score to settle with every bird that dares enter your airspace. Blast them with peas, dive-bomb the pedestrians, and remind Australia who's really in charge.

Built on the DANMAKU vertical-shooter engine, MAGPIE brings a distinctly Australian attitude to the bullet-hell genre.

Five Places. Five Big Birds.

Take your swooping campaign across Australia, battling flocks of troublesome birds before facing each region's feathered heavyweight.

• The Burbs: Kookaburra
• The Beach: Seagull
• The City: Bin Chicken
• The Lake: Black Swan
• The Outback: Wedge-tail

Along the way, miners fly in formation, crows dive at you, cockatoos spray seeds, and pelicans drop power-ups—or extra swoops.

Peas, Please!

Your pea-shooter has two firing modes. Tap for a spray of peas while keeping your speed, or hold fire for a stronger stream that slows your flight. Pick your moment, dodge the incoming barrage, and keep the other birds out of your sky.

But birds aren't your only problem. Cyclists travel the paths, while kids with shanghais fire stones from the sandpits. Peas won't bother the people below. For that, you'll need your secret weapon.

THE SWOOP!

Dive towards the ground and watch your shadow close in. When you hit, feathers fly!

Your swoop wipes out incoming projectiles, damages every bird on screen, and sends nearby people running for cover with their arms over their heads. Swoop multiple people in one dive to rack up even bigger scores.

Swoops recharge over time, and feather pickups give you more. Save them for the perfect moment—or unleash chaos whenever the opportunity presents itself.

Keep the HIT Chain Going

Destroy enemies in quick succession to build your HIT chain. The longer you keep it alive, the more each kill is worth. Stay sharp, stay airborne and keep the points rolling in.

Choose Your Swooping Season

• Easy: One run through all five places.
• Medium: Two runs, with the second faster and nastier.
• Hard: Two runs on a single life. No room for mistakes!

Featuring scrolling Australian scenery, outrageous bird battles and a weaponised swoop, MAGPIE is a vertical-scrolling shooter for the ZX Spectrum Next, written in NTC BASIC.

Runs at 50 frames per second in the emulator. Real-hardware testing has not yet been performed.

(c) 2026 Cyborg Unicorn Pty Ltd