Time-Gate

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.