Time-Gate
Description
In a universe terrorized by enemy ships, Earth has been invaded and taken over by an alien race going by the name of the Squarm. In possession of the interstellar spaceship Void-Runner 1, the player (an elite member of the Temporal Brotherhood) must travel from sector to sector in space in search of Time-Gates which will transport the player back in time. This is all in an attempt to get closer to their goal of finding the enemy headquarters in the distant past and destroying it.
Each particular period of time places the player in a sector of space, depicted by a 6x3 radar grid in the bottom corner of the screen. The player can warp between the different areas (which are usefully depicted ahead of time as containing enemy ships and/or planets) in search of the elusive Time-Gate which could be in any area. Fighting with enemy ships takes place in a 3D view out the cockpit window, and damage sustained can be repaired by landing on the various planets, although you may of course have to battle aliens to be able to land.
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Credits (ZX Spectrum version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 75% (based on 2 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 4 ratings with 1 reviews)
The Good
Mankind has been enslaved by the evil Squarm, so off you go in your space fighter to defeate them.
There's a pretty good manual that you load in first, which explains the story and controls. You can also configure for Kempston joystick before loading the second half of the tape, the actual game.
Controlling your space fighter in a scrolling 3d starfield is an amazing experience. The cockpit shows a map of the system, a message display, and status to the right.
The system sectors is empty, have a planet, or aliens, if not both. You travel to each by selecting it with the L key and then J for jump.
You need to control speed and direction in vertical and horizontal space as you try to catch the squarm fighters - they look like Tie Fighters. It seems a bit difficult, but works like most flight sims, with 5 speeds to chose between.
You fire the lasers when the enemy is in the center of your screen, and they will change color as they take damage. Of course they shoot back, and you can try to swerve around their shots. If you take damage, your ship's subsystems will change colour from green and a few more until blue, dead. This is how you die in this game.
When all enemies are defeated in the sector, you can seek a planet and land for repairs. This can be done once per planet. Once repaired, you warp to the next sector with Squarms.
The end is also when you find the Time Gate.
The Bad
I can't find fault with the game, really.
The Bottom Line
I am pretty sure i would have loved it had I been able to play it back in 1982. This was the game that you would impress friends with if they wondered whether or not it was a Spectrum they should wish for Christmas. And it it is still a very good game. Recommended.
ZX Spectrum · by pistolhamster (21) · 2024
Trivia
Programmer
The John Hollis who programmed this game is not the late British actor of the same name who appeared in The Empire Strikes Back, Doctor Who and several Superman films. Why would you think he did? Because for some time Wikipedia identified both as the same person, even though the actor was 55 when the Spectrum launched.
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Kic'N.
Additional contributors: Martin Smith, ZeTomes.
Game added February 16th, 2007. Last modified October 9th, 2023.