C&VG
1st December 1987
Publisher: Go!
Machine: Spectrum 48K
Published in Computer & Video Games #74
Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper
Where's that terminal?! The clock is running down too fast there've too many damn aliens in the way my ammo and energy are running low and I'm real close to destroying the bomb! It's action all the way as the Go! label kicks off with a real winner.
Trantor gives you arcade action with a capital A! And it's probably the best game the Amstrad has seen for a long time.
The scenario goes like this. Trantor is the sole survivor from a team of stormtroopers sent to the planet Nebulithon to destroy the deadly Quark Mk3 bomb and restore peace and harmony to the galaxy.
Someone sabotaged the stormtroopers' ship which was destroyed as soon as it landed in the underground complex where the bomb is hidden.
Trantor escaped - but faces an additional hazard apart from the alien defence systems. His bosses implanted all the troops with a special bionic bodybomb just to make sure they completed the mission and came back without pinching the bomb for their own evil schemes.
This means that Trantor has to dash between security terminals in the underground complex resetting the timer on his body bomb. He gets just 90 seconds to dash between the terminals which also dish out other goodies - like energy giving food, ammo and the all-important security letters which, made up into a whole password, will give you your beam code used to escape this hostile environment.
In between you must fight off hordes of droid defenders and some awesome-looking Alien-type creatures.
Run, shoot, duck and dodge your way through the ever-changing tunnel complex. Search the lockers for extra equipment and watch out for the eight computer terminals.
Without the code you're dead. It's easy to access the terminals - no fiddling about with keyboard controls.
Just position Trantor in front of the terminal and pull down on the joystick. The screen changes and you see a print out of the code letter you've discovered as your time clock resets.
Access the lockers and the game freezes which the contents are displayed in the status readout at the top of the screen.
Animation and graphics are excellent on both Spectrum and Amstrad versions. And gameplay is totally addictive. The Amstrad game is one of the most colourful and action-packed that machine has ever seen.
Watch out for the animated loading sequence which shows Trantor's ship slowly landing - and then detonating, leaving our hero all alone on the planet.
At the end of each attempt you get a percentage rating and a cute comment on your performance. See if you can spot the rude remark about Fergus McGovern - the boss of the programming team Probe Software.
Sound isn't bad, specially on the +3. Trantor is a fine debut for a new label - and if this is the shape of things to come, expect big things from Go!