Previous Next

The title tells you a lot about this game - you're going to be either hurtling through space firing at missiles or hurtling along corridors. In fact you get to do both, though neither is a particularly thrilling experience for the seasoned Spectrum pilot.

The intention is to get a direct hit on an alien base's reactor systems; but first you have to fly through space to get there. Having set your controls for the heart of the Kempston, Sinclair or Cursor joystick, or even the keyboard (a sensibly wide range of choices), you choose from the four skill levels.

Your sights are at the centre of your view through your cockpit, and sure enough strange objects start to come out of the screen towards you as you hurtle along. The panel at the bottom shows your shield strength, laser strength, skill level, score and status; this last moving from green through yellow to read.

The 3D effect is achieved by simple wire-graphics technique, which never seems altogether convincing to me, but at least it means you can get a bit more in. You rush headlong through space for about half a minute or so, and provided you survive (not too difficult) you then rush headlong just above the planet's surface, firing at more enemy craft and also trying to shoot what appear at first sight to be goal-posts, but which turn out to be shoe-box type buildings - hit 15 of these for a bonus score.

Next comes the corridor sequence, with the same nasties to fire at, but with the addition of barriers across the corridor to fly under or over. Then comes a strange little sequence where your sights are apparently locked on to the reactor pods you're after, so you fire furiously for a few seconds before it's back to the corridor to make your way out (which is much like making your way in).

After that I'm not sure as this was usually where my shields gave out and the game abruptly stops, showing you your score and giving you a chance to start again. There's no high score table, but that's no great loss as I can't see many people wanting to knock up high scores at this graphically limited game with poor sound and few thrills.