The Aliens Fight Back!

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In the year 2001, Earth is controlled by a massive computer complex called the Aabatron. Unfortunately, it has been overrun by aliens and it is your job to clear the twenty rooms in your blaster buggy. Aabatron is a fast-action, shoot-'em-up game set in a number of enclosed areas which represent the rooms.

The program loads with a rather uninspiring header giving the instructions on a Mode 2 screen, but from then on things get livelier as the nasties are displayed to the accompaniment of a stirring little tune, while a 'computeresque' title scrolls smoothly across the top of the screen. The music is unique in using the cassette relay to mark time. It provides an interesting effect, but I wonder if continuous playing would shorten the life of this component!

There are six different varieties of nasty and these are placed at various points on the screen, with your own buggy in the centre. As soon as the game starts, four or five of the aliens head for the walls and continuouslty circumnavigate them in both directions. You can move your blaster around with the keyboard, a joystick or a combination of both. Hitting stationary aliens scores for you, but hitting them on the move, scores rather more. There are five speeds of play, from unbearably slow to unbearably fast, and the screens get progressively harder, with more aliens and the occasional flyer who decides to take a short cut up the screen. Oh, and the aliens shoot back!

The idea of having a number of rooms is perhaps more of a gimmick than a useful addition to the game, but the screens are well put together and as a variation on the straight 'blast the aliens rigid' concept, Aabatron makes a very playable game from Clemoes. I'd be interested to see more from them.

Simon Williams