Astro Plumber
(Blue Ribbon, 1986)
You have been sent to a scientific research base beneath the Moon’s surface so that you can repair some leaking pipes. However, the underground caverns also contain many strange inhabitants that cannot be destroyed, and you will lose one of your three lives if you touch any of them. You have a jet-pack to help you avoid them, but it has a limited supply of fuel. Your supply of air is also limited, and you will need to return to the surface regularly to get some more air. This is a very simple platform game with basic graphics and very poor sound effects. The need to return to the surface regularly to refill your air supply, as well as the inability to destroy any of the inhabitants, makes this a frustrating game that you won’t want to play again after a few goes.
Astroball
(The Power House, 1988)
This is a simple and cheerful little game that starts off being addictive but becomes a bit frustrating. You control a ball which constantly moves left and right and bounces off the walls and anything else it comes into contact with – you can only move it up and down. The aim in each of the sixteen screens is to collect four objects within the time limit and avoid hurting the ball too much. The graphics are brilliant and the music on the title screen is also great, albeit a little bizarre for some tastes. However, most of the game is written in BASIC and the controls can often be unresponsive, and the ball sometimes has a mind of its own.
Astrocop
(Mananuk, 2022)
You joined the Space Police in the expectation that you would be fighting serious crime. Instead you’ve been assigned to the Cat Rescue Patrol to rescue cute kittens and give them the life they deserve – and that’s a noble cause too, right? As with Mananuk’s previous releases, this is a simple, no-frills platform game with 15 levels. Each level consists of two screens, and you have to rescue a kitten, collect a floppy disk, and then find a computer in order to progress to the next level. Even though you’re in the Space Police, there’s no shooting involved; you’re unarmed and you’ll have to dodge enemy aliens as best you can. The music is irritating, but the graphics are colourful, it’s fun to play and it isn’t overly difficult to complete the first few levels.
Atahualpa was the last ruler of the Incas before the Spanish came over to conquer Peru, and this game is set in that time period. The whole premise is slightly vague, but you control a young woman and must traverse the maze-like layout of the levels, avoiding the many enemies and collecting scattered items, all of which are shown on a handy map on the right of the screen. Things can get pretty hectic at times, but you are helped by the ability to sprout wings and fly above all the carnage for a limited time. The graphics are tiny and lacking in colour, there are too many bad guys after you, and the whole thing is just very vague and mysterious. There is a nice rendition of Ravel’s Boléro during the game, though.
Pilot the Advanced Tactical Fighter across hostile territory in this flight simulator-cum-shoot-’em-up. Armed with a multitude of Amraam and Maverick missiles, as well as your gun cannons, you must engage enemy forces on land, sea and air. Fly over green pastures, deserts, mountains and oceans as you destroy the opposition’s fighters and installations. Viewed from a 3D perspective behind the plane, the ATF moves along nicely in the fast scrolling three-dimensional environment, and the surrounding information banks on your screen are a nice touch. While it has more of an arcade feel than most flight simulators, the loss of realism is compensated by good graphics, sound and gameplay.
Athanor
(Safar Games, 2014)
You are a Franciscan monk who has been ordered to travel to an abbey in the south of Italy to investigate reports of strange things happening there which are worrying the monks – but your searches could take you on a journey that you could not have imagined... This text adventure is the first in what is intended to be a trilogy. The pictures accompanying each location are crudely drawn in black and white, but this is deliberate, as the game is meant to resemble the text adventures of the early 1980s. Another trait that it shares with some of these games is a very unforgiving parser that refuses to accept many obvious commands and synonyms. Most of the locations are laid out in an extremely illogical manner that seems to have been designed for the sole purpose of needlessly frustrating the player, and I found it very difficult to find any enjoyment at all out of trying to solve it.
Athlete
(Microïds, 1985)
Up to six players can compete in a series of five athletics events – the 100m sprint, the long jump, the 110m hurdles, the javelin, and the 400m. This is basically a French version of Daley Thompson’s Decathlon. The graphics are rather drab and flicker a lot, although the athletes themselves are animated fairly well, and the sound effects are mediocre. As you might expect, each event requires some serious joystick waggling or keyboard bashing, and accurate timing of your jumps is also necessary for some events. If you manage to complete all five events, you’ll be exhausted! This is a reasonable game, but its main drawback is that unlike most other games of this nature, you only get one chance to qualify for each event; if you fail, your game ends immediately.
Atic Atac
(John Ward, 2020)
You have found yourself trapped in a haunted castle and you must find the three pieces of the Golden Key of ACG in order to open the main doors and escape. In order to explore all the rooms, you’ll need to find coloured keys that will open doors of the same colour. You can play as one of three characters, and there are secret doorways that can only be used by specific characters. Each room is filled with monsters that must be avoided, and some monsters will drain your energy very quickly. This unofficial conversion of Ultimate Play the Game’s acclaimed ZX Spectrum game of the same name is really enjoyable to play. It includes new sound effects and bright, colourful graphics, and movement of your character and the enemies is extremely smooth as you zoom around the castle in search of the pieces of the Golden Key.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Saberman.
There’s an interesting background to this game. It was all finished back in 1988 and Iber Soft were to take on the publishing duties, but they also requested a Spectrum version of the game as part of the deal. When that version failed to materialise due to technical problems, the CPC version was shelved! Thankfully the game was eventually released in 2004, so did we miss out on a masterpiece? Not really, but it has its good points. The gameplay consists of platforming, exploration and item collection. The only problem is that the platforming can require pixel-perfect timing, which results in a very hard game. Graphically it’s in Mode 1 with some nice backgrounds and enemies. There is very little in the way of sound, but that strangely adds to the atmosphere. It’s a sizeable game with lots to discover, but why did it have to be so hard?
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
XeNoMoRPH.
Atlantis
(Anirog, 1985)
Skip is a diver searching for treasure within the domain of King Neptune. On each level, Skip must rescue a harmless purple creature known as Cute, and either collect a pearl or rescue a sailor or a mermaid – but his air supply is limited, and he must also avoid other nasty creatures such as sharks, octopuses and crabs which roam Neptune’s domain, as any contact with them costs a life. The graphics are simple but colourful and nicely animated, and a variety of sea shanties play during the game, but there are only three levels, and the second level is frustratingly difficult.