1st October 1986
Knight Rider
It's here at last! Knight Rider has finally been released by OCEAN. Michael, his co-ordinator Deven and the super car Kitt are once again on the trail of baddies. At their Atlanta HQ the duo receive a message from Deven, informing them that a bunch of terrorists are up to no good - Deven also hints that the terrorists may have designs on world domination...
Michael and Kitt set off on a perilous mission to try and stop those darn terrorists from starting World War Three. The only trouble is, nobody actually knows where all this terrorist activity is taking place, so Kitt and Michael have to drive like mad things all over America at insane speeds, collecting clues before the time limit on the mission runs out.
At the beginning of the game you are presented with a map of the United States and a menu of cities which can be visited. Kitt passes on a message from Deven suggesting a city in which there is terrorist activity. Now it's up to you and Kitt to zoom down to that partitular city as fast as possible to see what's going on. Kitt is a pretty unusual car and unstoppable. Once on the road, enemy helicopters rise up from the horizon trying to inflict serious damage. A meter on Kitt's dashboard clocks up the damage and when the level gets too high you have to get Kitt repaired at the next town which is rather time consuming.
Mike can drive with Kitt firing the lasers, or Kitt can drive (more slowly) and let Mike do the shooting. A digital speedometer reveals the rate of travel, and another milometer ticks down as the destination city gets closer. Lasers, of course, overheat and too much shooting leaves the car defenceless while the lasers cool.
On arrival in a city the view automatically changes. Mike enters a building patrolled by guards. The action is viewed from above, and as Mike never carries a gun, he must avoid the enemy by sheer skill and some speedy footwork as he picks a route to the other side of the maze. Contact with a guard sends Mike back to the beginning of the current location - very time consuming. New orders scroll across the bottom of the screen once a maze has been negotiated and it's off to the next city, on the trail of those power-crazed terrorists.
The opening menu allows you to select a plot to the game, or the scenario can be allocated at random. A time limit, monitored by a clock on Kitt's instrument panel, is set and the mission fails if the time expires before all the locations have been visited and maze problems solved. Then it's back to Atlanta, and time to start yet another mission to save the world.
Comments
Control keys: W up, S down, N left, M right, Q fire, P pause, CAPS SHIFT and SYM SHIFT quit and restart
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: a bit plain, but no clashes
Graphics: dodgy on the driving screen, okay on the mazes and map
Sound: neat tune, adequate spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: map screen, scrolling road and maze section
Screenshots
