Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Factory Breakout

Steve Crow‘s second game, Factory Breakout, was published by Poppy Soft in 1984. It is a game with three distinct sections, the second and third of which repeat with greater difficulty. The first section (played just once per game) is an eight-directional shooter where you have to stop lasers from reaching you until a timer runs down. The second section is a simple ‘dodge-the-lasers-down-a-corridor’ game, and the third section is a Pac-Man style platform game where you have to fall through holes in the floor to make them disappear, while at the same time avoiding chasing monsters. Factory Breakout does have some very nice, colourful and cute graphics, and is very playable. As a 1984 release it further indicated that Steve Crow was a programmer/designer to be watched. His next game – Wizard’s Lair – really cemented that fact.