1986 Sinclair User (UK)
by John Pitcher
Krakatoa 2012 is a remake of the 1983 original game by Abbex. Well, to be more precise, it's more of an inspired-by game, as it's suggested by the instructions. The game was published as a type-in the Sinclair User magazine in 1986 and features Aliens as the main ingredient. It's not bad, but because it's written in BASIC it's hardly genuine fun, action games tend to be rater nasty in written in this language. Still as a tribute to the original game I find it quite cute and interesting.
Review by YOR on 30 May 2022 (Rating: 1)
John Pitcher, who wrote Mindstone an adventure I've covered on this site, was a bit of a naughty man. For he wrote a type-in game called Krakatoa 2012 and with minor modifications he sent it to not one magazine, but two, and I'll be covering both today like some kind of masochist. Here's the version he sent to SInclair User, and well the idea is there, rescuing ten islanders back to the mothership safely, but the execution is greatly flawed. You see the enemies can hit you and when you respawn they can hit you immediately afterwards again, and again, and if you're really not careful again, and again and again, and suddenly half your shield is instantly gone. This is largely unplayable for that very reason and seeing there's two of them I shudder what the other one will be like, well too bad I'm not reviewing it for the simple reason that I can't get it to run, but I imagine I could just get away with copying and pasting this review onto it because it'll pretty much be the same game anyway, didn't stop The Dean from doing it that way, but I hate this game and so I won't. Besides, he's a God and I'm just a mere mortal, so best just to leave it, one and done, never again.
