Around in every direction, it was still as black as pitch, but nearly overhead there burst out all at once a circular rift of clear sky - as clear as I ever saw - and of a deep bright blue - and through it there blazed forth the full moon with a lustre that I never before knew her to wear. She lit up everything about us with the greatest distinctness - but oh God what a scene it was to light up.

Edgar Allan Poe, A Descent Into The Maelstrom

Over many millennia, the Galaxy Rangers have kept law and order in the Universe by transporting all violent life forms to a large planet on the edge of the furthest reaches of space. Escape from the planet was impossible, as a high influx stasis field kept all the offenders imprisoned. The fuel for the field generator was thought to last indefinitely as it came from a nearby star.

What had not been taken into consideration was the fact that every billion years or so, a solar eclipse took place. This blocked the passage of solar plasma to the fuel receptors of the field generator. The shield died for long enough to allow the most dangerous creatures in the universe to become free.

The only Galaxy Ranger in the area is... you! After eons of captivity, the prisoners will stop at nothing to gain freedom. All their hatred and vengeance will be directed at you. A sickening storm of violence and mayhem faces you. Guts and great determination are the only things that will keep you alive. Are you ready to descend into the Maelstrom?

Maelstrom took me a month to write devoting only my spare time (what little I have!) to it. The main tool used in the creation of the game was a sprite designing package I had written. This enabled me to quickly design the thirty-odd aliens and other images that appear in the game (I take my hat off to those who see them all!). Even the logo at the top right of the screen was designed using the system (it is supposed to be lightning and sparks, not a map!). We at Disk User thought you might like to use it too.

It is primarily a programmer's tool, but don't let that put you off, you only need a little understanding of BBC BASIC to be able to display sprites in your own programs. Machine code programmers will find it very fast and easy to integrate in their programs. The real power of the system lies in its flexibility. Unlike other packages the area of memory containing the sprite data and control program is totally under your control. The other feature that sets this package way above the others is that you can define sprites for any graphics mode. So if you want a fast and simple method of using sprites in your programs then this is for you. With practice and a little effort you could write games much better than Maelstrom (which isn't difficult to do). The Sprite System can be ordered through Software Services. I thoroughly recommend it (but then I would because I wrote it).

Z - Left, X - Right, : - Up, ? - Down, SPACE - Fire

Tape: CHAIN"" (RETURN)
Disc: SHIFT-BREAK