| 16K CASS. |
|
ENGLISH SOFTWARE CO. |
|
1 PLAYER |
Venus Voyager is a space navigation and rescue game in which you have to navigate your spacecraft down fissures in the planet's surface in order to rescue six men who are stranded in underground caverns. The screen display uses display list interrupts to give graduated bands of colour which gives a nice effect but the graphics of the fissures are a bit blocky. There are a good number of hazards about including space mines, power stations and an orbiting supply ship which often gets in the way.
The game seems simple enough but is in fact very difficult to play. You control your craft by moving the joystick left or right and by pressing the fire button to apply thrust to slow down your descent. Gravity has quite a strong effect on this planet. The problems come in trying to get down the fissures for the spacecraft seems to float about a little too freely. There is only just enough room in the fissures to navigate and they all have little twists and turns. If you do manage to get to the bottom of a fissure, the screen changes to give you an enlarged view of the lower part of the cavern with your stranded compatriots in an underground bunker. There are a couple of landing pad protectors floating about but these do not give too much trouble. The landing pad however is only just big
enough for your craft and you must land at the right speed as well as squeeze onto the pad. If you land, the man to be rescued will come to your craft and wave goodbye to enable you to start another rescue. Do this six times in all and you will progress to the next level although goodness knows how difficult that is.
As well as navigating problems, you have to keep an eye on your fuel and either dock with the supply ship or land on a pad to refuel. Again, watch your speed-it must be precise. With all of the hazards and the difficulty in precisely controlling your craft, Venus Voyager is a very difficult game to play and this has been confirmed by someone who has scored over 3 million on Defender! Try it if you dare.
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