CROSS THE DOTS!

Space Island turns your Spectrum into a control panel on board a starship in geostationary orbit above the island of Roba on the planet Zyro. You control an android who 'stands alone amidst wreckage and awaits your command.' Your TV set becomes a videoscanner (what else?) showing an 'orbital map' of Roba island.

Somehow my Spectrum didn't quite have the feel of a control panel - well, let's face it, have you ever seen a control panel you can slip into your back pocket and not notice?

Obviously my pet android felt this, for when I tried to move him around the tiny island (him a dirty great cross trying to rendezvous with microscopic dots representing objects), he didn't respond with quite the alacrity one might expect from such a high-tech device. Once moving, this obstinate creature would proceed inexorably in the same direction until commanded otherwise. Even after a good night's sleep he would wake up and plod on regardless in obedience to his previous instruction!

Apart from this painful method of movement Space Island boasts a vocabulary of 19 words, yes folks - 19! Not whole words admittedly, but the initial letters of verbs.

The cassette inlay mentions slick machine code display. However, the program is written in Basic, and reaction is just not slick enough to give adequate control.

Space Island is for 48k Spectrum from Terminal Software, price £6.95. Fairly apt, for if I'd played it for much longer, I would now be suffering from terminal boredom.

Reviewer: Keith Campbell

DROID YAWN

MAKER: Terminal Software
MACHINE: 48K ZX Spectrum
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £6.95

Unexciting 'graphic adventure' (I'm growing slowly to hate that term) set upon the crudely etched planet of Zyro. Apparently one of your patrolling survey ships has been downed by a mysterious salvo of alien laser fire. Miraculously, though, an android has survived this attack, and he now stands amid the wreckage of the craft awaiting further instructions.

With what transpires to be a particularly limited vocabulary you must try and guide the little tin man about the surface of the planet and attempt to solve the riddle of the hostile blast.

The subsequent action (I use the term loosely) is then enacted across a static map with your android artfully represented as a white punctuation mark. Just nudge your marker around the planet and react to the messages displayed.

Yawnsville dad.

As you might imagine I found the thing exceptionally tedious. Progress is slow and the graphic display barely warrants a mention.

Space Island is set in the year 2651 on the planet Zyro. 20000 years ago the Avafad people of Zyro developed Timespread, a machine which enables matter to be reduced to zero mass, thus making it transportable at speeds greater than that of light itself. Hence time can be changed.

Your objective is to disable Timespread and return it to Earth because it has been causing time distortion around the planet Zyro. Unfortunately this is where the trouble starts, when you try and land a survey ship on the island Roba, where Timespread is situated, your ship is destroyed by Timespread's highly sophisticated defence system. There is only one survivor left on Roba, one of your androids, who is situated on a small island west of the Roba itself. Your only chance is to carefully guide this android to the island Roba where it can disable Timespread.

You are shown an overhead view of Roba and the surrounding islands, whilst the android is represented by a small cross. Occasionally the android will talk to you, asking for assistance. This is a real time game, so there is little time to sit back and think.

Space Island is reasonably original, complicated in some respects, whilst simple in its concept. A good game well worth considering for the long dark evenings.