Overkill is a vertical scrolling shooter that was released by Epic Games and Precision Software Publishing in 1992. The game was designed and developed by Tech-Noir Productions and Ste Cork. Overkill was Epic's first vertical shooter. The game was lacking some of the technology that other top shareware games of the time had, such as Jill of the Jungle, ID Software's Commander Keen, and Apogee's Duke Nukem. It boasted EGA graphics, PC speaker sound effects, support for a joystick, and a General MIDI musical track. While the game did sell a considerable amount of copies, it was quickly overshadowed by later vertical shooters such as Raptor: Call of the Shadows, Major Stryker, and Tyrian. There are two versions of the game, the shareware version, and the commercial version. Because of certain business practices, in less than a year from the original release date the author took legal action against Precision Software Publishing (PSP), who immediately lost the right to publish the game or collect payments for it from any other distributors throughout Europe, and PSP's name was removed from all screens within the game for the 1993 re-release, and replaced by references to Epic UK ( now closed down? ). Nothing else was changed between the 1992 and 1993 versions. The shareware version allows the user to play planets one and two, while the commercial version grants access to all six planets. Ste Cork declared the registered version freeware on July 23, 2008.