Yet another new game from AMCOG!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to take on the role of a secret agent operating on behalf of MI7 who has been sent to infiltrate an Antarctic facility operated by the nefarious Doctor Atom.
Cutting a long story short, though, having found out about the miniature nuclear reactor he’s developed, you got caught, escaped before getting dropped into a shark tank, and stumbled upon a prototype car powered by the reactor – and have decided to use the car as a means of escape, and if successful doing so will also provide something to be studied when you get it back home to your superiors.
Which takes you neatly to the point at which you start to play this horizontal scroller written by Tony Bartram and released through AMCOG Games. You start out in the stolen experimental car, and have to head from left to right through the cave system to escape. Trying to stop you are various types of robot, including one very large and hard to destroy one at the end of each level. They all shoot at you, but each also has their own limitations, most notably a lack of anything more than very basic programming.
While their weapons don’t damage the car as such, the extra energy being diverted to its shielding causes the reactor’s pressure to rise – as does any other type of external force, such as crashing into the cave walls – so keep an eye on the pressure gauge and, when you can, try to find a safe spot and give the reactor a chance to rest; you don’t want it to blow.
You’ll also find ammunition along the way for the three types of weapon the car is equipped with, which you’ll need to fight off those robots, and to make some parts of the cave easier to get through – but don’t waste it, because the giant robot guarding each cave’s exit will need quite a few direct hits to take it out.
In common with AMCOG’s titles, the game features high quality original music, and sound effects provided by RDSP – a module, free of charge and also from AMCOG, that enhances the RISC OS sound system. The game is written in BBC BASIC, and features nine progressively difficult stages with procedural cave generation.
It is compatible with RISC OS 4 on VirtualRiscPC, and RISC OS 5 running on RPCEmu and systems based around the BeagleBoard, Pandaboard, ARMX6, Titanium, and Raspberry Pi. For the latter, a Pi 2 or later is recommended, though the game can be played on a Pi 1.
Available from !Store, the game is priced at £9.99, and all updates will be free of charge.
