Reviews

Following the earlier tradition of Bruce Lee this is a game that mixes both a bit of martial arts and platform arcade adventure. However, where the earlier game rapidly becomes an easy plod, Saboteur has a vast playing area with a warehouse linked to underground complexes via rail tunnels from which you must recover a computer disk and escape via a helicopter. There are some guards who are relatively easy to dispatch and some vicious dogs who will slow you down and presumably set the RSPCA onto you if you try to kill them.

Although not terribly original, the whole thing comes together very well to make one of the most memorable arcade adventures for the Spectrum. With nine levels of difficulty and a large map to explore, there's plenty of replay value too for once you've finished it.

Incredibly atmospheric. One of those games that really put you into the action. A lot of difficulty levels to choose so everybody can have a chance and finish it.

Probably not one of the best speccy games technically wise, but if you played this game back then you know what I'm telling.

Despite all the pretences this game has of being a proto-Metal Gear stealth game it's really just a flick-screen arcade adventure featuring a bloke in ninja kit. Despite that, it's also extremely atmospheric, the graphics are great and allowing the player to progress through the difficulty levels at will is a nice touch. However, many of the excellent and innovative ideas this game had don't quite work. The dogs are difficult to attack, the guards are far too easy and present precious little challenge and the most likely thing to stop our hero is the clock or a bad fall.

None of this stops 'Saboteur' from being a great game that's still fun to play but the sequel built on the original admirably.

A superb game where you play the role of a ninja avoiding hounds and policemen alike .

Cool atmosphere, cute graphics, amazing movements ... a fine cocktail for a fine program.

8 out of 10 for me.

You are the Saboteur. Sneak into the enemy complex and steal the plans before escaping from the building in a helicopter. Guards patrol the complex but can be taken out with some handy martial arts skills. The dogs that snap at your heels are more troublesome and are best avoided. The game plays at a decent pace and the controls are responsive although sometimes it can be difficult to aim the weapons unless you want to throw straight ahead. This is only a minor complaint however in an otherwise excellent game.

Review 1 [December 2014]
Classic ninja game with platforms, exploration, loads of enemies and bloodthirsty dogs, items to be retrieved, a sort of secret subway and a helicopter for you to run away.

Review 2 [February 2014]
You're a ninja that moves like a shadow in the night and stealthily infiltrates a building in search of some secret tapes or something. You stealthily avoid to beat the dogs, because you're an animal rights activist or because of possible karmic consequences, but you don't mind punching or flying kicking the humans watching the property, or even throwing typical oriental weapons at them, like shuriken, knives, bricks and stones. Anything that is at hand, actually. And there are lots of ladders taking you to secluded spots, hidden rooms, mysterious sewers. Then, take a merry ride on the mini-underground! Or fly away, stealthily, with whirling blades. And you're so agile that you can jump anywhere, especially on useless spots. Moving like a shadow in the night.
4,5/5

I have a fairly low tolerance of mapping. Back in the day, Saboteur, awash with more atmosphere than any game I had seen, was a disappointment to me when I found out it was less about the ninja knock out arts and clocking dogs with bricks and more about finding your way about quickly.
Nowadays I can cheat a bit in games where I feel a bit lost and come to appreciate the tension, stealth and anxiety that is written into the game.
Saboteur is a graphical triumph in that without the stairs and lift shafts and underground metros and disk terminals it would have been much less absorbing. The tip tap fx are minimal, but also work well for atmosphere.
With help from the map and a reminder of the key objectives – find the bomb, swap for the disk and find the escape helicopter – I eventually completed Saboteur on ‘extremely easy’ today - a first ever success.
Now I understand why some Spec-chums say it is very completeable – I made it through with time and energy to spare. The 8 higher difficulty settings, each with variety in the challenge and timings – show that replayability was a strong consideration.
It is a superb piece of programming from Clive Townsend and well worth its place in the Spectrum hall of fame.
Gameplay is 4/5 but the top score for atmosphere is enough to drag it up to a 5.

I still need to finish this game.
I played on the CPC more than in the spectrum, but it is pretty similar in both versions.

The game is complex, but not impossible, and with a few game you can advance and discover a lot of the plot, but still not being able to finish.

I like it, not in my top 100. But a MUST PLAY and a spectrum classic, you will enjoy

One of the Spectrum greats by Clive Townsend for Durell, considered the first 'infiltration' game in videogame history.

The main character is a trendy one back in the 80s, a ninja, often used in films and videogames, that must steal a disk with secret information from a security building disguised as a warehouse avoiding guards and fierce dogs and escape in a helicopter on the roof.

There are ten difficulty levels you can choose, varying amount of enemies and ways to escape, what is like facing ten different ways to complete the mission.

The game starts when you entering the building from the sea in a rubber dinghy, a true cinematic touch. As I said before, you must avoid dogs, guards, and ceiling-mounted anti-personnel weapons in your way to the disk, using computer terminals to unlock some doors, all in a limited time. Saboteur has also a very cool feature, two underground trains to get around the building.

Another original feature is the 'blood counter', it decreases whenever any enemy hurts you and you die when it reaches zero, ending the game, but you can have 'a rest' and in some seconds' time the level restores.

All is good in this game, except the inlay, that is not at the level of this Spectrum classic.

This has always been a fun game to play, maybe less so these days given I'm 50 now and I've run out of patience but it's still a fun game. The overall design is excellent and leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of games released around this time.

I've read the story behind Death Pit and it's amazing.
Since it served for the birth of Saboteur, it has its little corner in history. Saboteur in fact is pure history of the Spectrum in its own right.
Saboteur is like PSX' Metal gear Solid.
Imagine that an indie created a tribute to MGS in an inferior system (commonly called demake)

In fact Saboteur! IS a cleverly programmed game if you look closely




I am not able to give more insight into technical details but it shows that it is excellently programmed taking into account what it wants to express and how, and the limitations of the machine itself. Clive Townsend gave a lesson.

This was also always one of the ones we kids liked. It is true that it was a forerunner of the stealth aspect, less than he would have liked but enough to get us excited and get hooked.
Being a ninja is second to none.

Saboteur!
Infiltration games. A Dangerous yet funny precedent.
This was another Ninja Revolution. Back in the day ninjas were cooooool

Great!
I really enjoyed this back in the day

In fact, there were a handful of games that drove my attention to a level that conditioned my style preferences. No need to say Saboteur! Was and will be a reference in the world of Exploration Games. Yes I know it's overkill to put Saboteur to the level of say, Adventure(Atari VCS) but it is worth the "risk". In fact, the two games are "only" 6 years apart.

We can conclude Clive Townsend did a true Ninja flying kick with this immortal title. It even spawned a [high quality] sequel!