Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Voyage into the Unknown

In an era where games developers on the Spectrum wrote tight machine code games to squeeze performance from the computer, Mastertronic released this game that had been written in Spectrum Basic. Containing no audio, slow graphic drawing, and undocumented controls, the game quickly became notorious for its low quality in comparison with other Spectrum titles. The inlay blurb states you are one of the survivors of Earth's Great War and, on hearing new that forces of the Death Star are about to make a final move against Earth, you decide to take control a space ship you just happen to find, intent on setting off and finding some all powerful Crystal, negotiating a Maze of Total Blackness, locating the Death Star, and presumably destroying it. Unfortunately, the blurb also states the "your knowledge of space ships is minimal", and this is reflected in game. No instructions are present anywhere, and even getting off the first screen requires pressing random buttons to start the ship ("E"ngine, "P"ower, "I"gnition, if you're interested). Things don't improve once you have launched and at most screen you have to guess what key might do something, or what the 'futuristic jargon' shown on screen ("Time Warp Chuck Out", or encountering a "Buke") might mean.