Producer: Alphabatim
Retail Price: £7.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Mike Smith and Christian Urquhart

The Android planet is one of the worst places to live if you happen to be a robot. The planet is ruled and dominated by a race of androids who, in a fit of synthesised evolution, managed to acquire the majority of human feelings and attributes such as ambition, determination and greed.

Thousands of robots working in the planet's mines are exploited by the Androids. Leading a hellish existence, the robots' life spans are very short and unpleasant. The robots are purposely made to be of a docile nature and are too weak to contemplate rebellion. SID is a freak though. He is not as servile as his metallic brothers. One day, in the hope of escaping his grim fate, he wanders away from the mines into the deep cave network that weaves endlessly below the plantetoid's surface.

Frightened of being discovered by the evil gnome patrols that keep the workers in step, SID eventually found a cold and particularly well-hidden cave. Socrates, a philosopher from among the ruling robots who had preached the unpopular view that all machines were created equal was hiding in this cave. For his beliefs, Socrates had been exiled.

Realising that SID might be able to liberate the robots and become their Messiah, Socrates instructs him: to achieve upgrade and become an Android in order to lead the worker robots to rebellion, SID must collect three envelopes, each containing one part of a computer program. The complete program must then be input to the Android's main computer. SID agrees to the philosopher's requests and sets off on his mission to liberate robot-kind.

SID is a quite normal robot capable of quite a few useful tasks. For a start he can walk, and when it comes to getting over obstacles that block his way, a hefty robotic leap allows him to pass any barrier. The creatures are to be found underground. Water isn't very healthy when your prime constituent is iron, for instance...

There are some useful things to be found, too. Advanced high protein energy reboosters perk up your energy bar - they come in the form of sticky buns and bits of fruit. As an energy based organism your energy bar gives a direct indication of how much life you have left. Three energy bars are given on your quest for robot liberation: lose them and the game ends and your brothers are condemned to eternal slavery.

To get the three envelopes, three sections of the labyrinth must be negotiated, starting with the caves. To leave the caves a weight must be found to place upon a pressure pad to allow entry to the next section. Moving SID over an object and pressing the pick up key adds objects to your status line - only three objects can be carried at once.

You aren't the only inhabitant of the caves. Strange energy-sapping beings float around, and finding a gun is a good move - though you'll need to collect a magazine of bullets as well before you can start blasting away. Twelve bullet magazines of ammo are dotted round the caves.

Once through to the second section SID finds himself in a buggy travelling down a long corridor towards the next part. The buggy is equipped with a shield that can be activated if any cave creatures drift towards it, though the shield saps energy. A scanner at the top of the screen shows how far away the test centre is. Once through the corridor you're plonked within another room with a pressure pad. The only way out is through the door that the pad activates - without a weight you've got problems!

If you do get out of the room then SID is placed into the test centre. Here the envelopes must be found and the teleport activated to zap SID back into the first set of caves so the computer can be reprogrammed.

COMMENTS

Control keys: N left, M right, S leap, A fire, X pick up
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: responds adequately
Use of colour: pretty, no attribute clash
Graphics: good animation, nice graphics but a bit repetitive
Sound: not a great deal
Skill levels: 1
Screens: 152

After a glut of similar programs I must admit to being a little bemused by Alphabatim's decision to release something so derivative as their launch game. As an arcade adventure, Robot Messiah contains problems that are both logical and fun to solve, and the game compares well with the opposition. Things can slow down a bit when quite a few objects are on screen, and the action can get a bit ploddy at times. Graphically the game isn't all that exceptional - it's adequate apart from the animation on SID which is excellent. Overall not a bad game though there are so many of this sort already on the market and some are better: Robot Messiah may well be worth a look at if arcade adventures are your type of game.

Robot Messiah looked like it was really going to be something special, but unfortunately I found it rather boring and repetitive to play. The main character walks around really slowly, transforming any initial adventuring excitement into extreme frustration because it seems to take so long to get anywhere. The scenery is also pretty dull and samey making the game seem like a poor man's Nodes of Yesod. I do like a good arcade adventure, but this one failed to spark any real enthusiasm -when I played it I had a constant feeling of deja vu.

Robot Messiah, Alphabatim's entry into the software jungle reminded me a bit too much of the fabulous Nodes of Yesod, The game itself is very colourful and the movement is very smooth with lots of well animated baddies. The sound effects contain too much clicking - a good constant tune would have been better. The accuracy of the blocks is appalling: it's possible to stand at least a character space over the edge of a platform in mid air without falling to the ground. At first look a pleasing game, but after a few games you notice lots of problems with it.

Alphabatim

Reliable information from Robot Messiah's creators let me in on the fact that there are three stages to this game... unfortunately, intense investigation has only led to finding two stages - but what stages they are!

First sight of the game and it became apparent that Jet Set Willyand the Ultimate series of games were the major inspiration. But that's not such a bad thing, especially when you see what the programmers have done to improve the on-screen graphics. In true Ultimate-style, the nasties - a Prisoner-like bubble, flashing stars and blinking eyes - appear out of the ether and follow set patterns around the screen, hoping to drain your energy. You do have a weapon that can destroy the nasties, but don't bother trying to use it on the mad professor sprite - just run for your life!

You play the part of Sid, who looks like a character straight out of a pigeon-fanciers club - all cloth cap and the like. His task is to leap around the various platforms on-screen in search of three computer programs that he must carry back to a computer terminal. Sid is a splendid sprite, but the true joy is when he jumps - it is by far the best movement on-screen that's been seen yet on the Spectrum.

You can pick up various objects to help you with your mission, but only three can be held at any one time. Of the two stages seen - you travel between stage one and two in a car - both are similar in content - you leap around the gaily-patterned platforms, picking up food, searching for the computer programs and keeping a wary eye out for the nasties.

Play is easy - you can boot up Robot Messiah and have fun straight away. The storyline has been kept to a minimum and is largely irrelevant, which means you don't have to keep referring to the cassette inlay card every time you want to do something.

Overall, Robot Messiah is a great game - with colourful and clear graphics, superb on-screen movement and a goodly selection of caverns to map out.

Publisher: Alphabatim
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor

Robot Messiah makes a welcome change from the usual theme of free the humanoids. Instead, you are asked to free the robots.

As SID, a semi-intelligent droid, you must descend to an underground world beneath the planet's surface and search for three envelopes, which when fed into the master computer will free the droids.

The game is divided into three stages. The first, the caves, is simple but colourful and well illustrated. It consists of levels connected by rocky ledges and strewn with gnomes, bears, objects and flying nasties.

As only three objects can be carried, trips back to the start where the master computer lies will be necessary. Don't worry though, the caves are easy to memorise.

Two objects must be collected to gain entrance to the second stage - the buggy. This is hardly relevant to the game and consists of you sitting in a car trundling along at minus two miles per hour. It is neither strenuous nor exciting. Push the joystick down to pick up energy pills as you roll over them and push the joystick up to raise a shield for protection from nasties.

The test centre is another maze, full of differing levels, and as in the caves there is much scope for your jumping skills. SID is a bit slow off the mark and takes ages to leap, but his jumps are amusing and realistic. When you have found all the envelopes, pick up the PSU units and find the transporter pad. That will take you to the caves where you can begin your long climb back to the master computer.

Robot Messiah demands a degree of skill to complete the game with three lives. Arcade adventure experts will probably have the game whipped within a fairly short period, but if you are new to this type of maze mania it is challenging material.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Alphabatim
PRICE: £7.95

Beware of press releases that make proud boasts of a game being "the state of the art". Believe it or not, they may not be telling the truth.

However, that's the claim made for Robot Messiah, the latest creation from the minds of Daley Thompson's Decathlon co-authors Christian Urquhart and Mike Smith.

Robot Messiah is certainly impressive - an arcade adventure sprawling across more than 150 screens.

A Semi-Ingelligent Droid - known as SID - has to collect three envelopes which contain parts of a master program.

Each envelope must be fed into a master computer which will enable him to free his race and become the Robot Messiah.

The version of Robot Messiah supplied by Alphabatim was not quite complete, small alterations and changes will be made to the final version. But it was still good enough to get to grips with.

SID is a jaunty little character who can walk, jump, pick-up objects and fire at the nasty gnomes who supervise the robots in the mines of the Android planet.

As SID explores the screens he must carefully monitor his energy. Various foods scattered about the planet will keep him perked up as he completes the many tasks to progress through the game.

For all those who like their action mixed with problem solving, Robot Messiah will prove a worthwhile investment. Map freaks will also find it a big challenge.