Game 37: Voyager I: Sabotage of the Robot Ship

Name:Voyager I: Sabotage of the Robot Ship
Number:37
Year:1981
Publisher:Avalon Hill
Developer:William D. Volk
Genre:FPS
Difficulty:4/5
Time:Under 1 Hour

This was a surprisingly painful game to get running. I couldn't find any versions for a non-DOS platform and the DOS versions were all Basic files, and ergo, not something you can just fire up in DOSbox. Even the Internet Archive's version was Basic. How that got past people, I'll never know. Even this version was difficult to play, but I could play it, so that's something to be said. Part of the problem is I'm a person who didn't bother looking for old versions of DOSBasic, another is there wasn't anything for the emulators I have and I'm not bothering to do that for one single game. Can you guess who was proven right? Me.

Look at me, I'm so tough, destroying laser rifles

Voyager I is a game that technically falls into the category of FPS, if only because there's nothing else to call it. You walk around in an interface more at home with a top-down RPG than a shooter and hope you don't die. This is very difficult. I'm sure its possible, just as sure as I am that I don't care. Numbers on the right go down, and pressing C increases one of them. This is recharging my laser rifle. Taking a laser rifle off the ground increases the same bar to max. Shooting is pressing f for fire. If it isn't an elevator, it'll be destroyed. Combat is bull. It seems like you have a limited amount of time to shoot an enemy. This isn't for one enemy. This is for all enemies. Is it any surprise I flaked out after so little time?

Weapons:
A single laser rifle that seems to constantly drain. Firing was satisfactory though. 1/10

Enemies:
Robots...maybe the generators. 1/10

Non-Enemies:
They don't exist. 0/10

Levels:
Randomized wireframe levels. 0/10

Player Agency:
Walk around and hope you don't die. RPG-like interface. 1/10

Interactivity:
Up and down on an elevator doesn't count. 0/10

Atmosphere:
None. 0/10

Graphics:
Looks ugly. Shocking for 1981, isn't it? 0/10

Story:
Robots invade or something. 0/10

Sound/Music:
PC speaker. Standard stuff. 1/10

That's 4. Not bad for a game that's basically unplayable by today's standards. Scratch that, 1986 standards.