Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds is a single player puzzle solving game. It seems that a group of Egyptologists have managed to get themselves trapped deep within an ancient tomb. They're in deep trouble because their air supply is running out. Naturally they put in a call to International Rescue who spring into action. This is primarily a game of puzzles. It starts before lift off with the player selecting the equipment to be loaded into Thunderbird 2 which can only carry forty tons and every ton of equipment costs the player one hundred points. Should the Mole be taken? What about Thunderbird 4? Should extra fuel be carried? The loaded craft, when launched, arrives at the tomb and must fly through a series of mazes which makes up the tomb but it's not straight forward. The way is often blocked and must be cleared. Thunderbird 1 can move blue blocks out of the way, Thunderbird 2 can move green blocks and both can move red blocks and as an additional complication some passages are too narrow for Thunderbird 2 to pass through. Another feature of the puzzle is fuel management, flying uses up fuel but fortunately an earlier expedition did leave fuel dumps scattered around. There's treasure to be collected too. The game can be played on colour or black & white monitors, the F7 key re-tones the coloured blocks so the player can distinguish between them. It can be played either with the keyboard or with the joystick.