Codename Mat (1984)

Name:Codename Mat
Number:234
Year:1984
Publisher:Amsoft
Developer:Derek Brewster
Genre:Space Simulation
Difficulty:4/5
Time:2 hours 40 minutes
Won:No (103W/73L)

For several decades, the Myons have waged a war against the solar system, causing the Earth's forces to become depleted. In a last ditch effort to win the war, a new ship class has been designed to function as both a battle cruiser and a command center and a genetically engineered genius to pilot the flagship. But the Myons themselves have launched a final attack to stop the Earth from building them, and now you, as the teenaged Mat, have to fly the USS Centurion and lead Earth's forces against them.

So starts the manual of Codename Mat, a game with a story and setting so derivative that it's knocking off stuff that hasn't even been made yet. Not only do we have Not Cylons, they have Tie Fighters, and a Death Star-like ship. You fire photon torpedoes, just torpedoes which aren't limited like you would expect from Star Trek games. Oh, and you have to go through a Stargate to reach other planets from where you're at. (yes, I know Stargate didn't actually invent Stargates, it's just a funny coincidence in a game like this) But like many games of this era, story was an after thought to blasting scores of aliens...or robots, to kingdom come.

Space...the final frontier.

The game has three difficulty settings, which determine the size of the Myon fleet. Starting with a practice mode, only one planet has a fleet surrounding it, ending with a full-scale invasion. I couldn't even beat practice mode, so that shows how badly a full invasion is going to go. There are two modes, commander and pilot, which determine whether or not you get friendly forces.

At first play, this game is not very user friendly. With a joystick, you can aim and shoot, so you have to do other things with the keyboard. The game is incredibly obtuse to pick up and play, but there IS a logic to it. The first few times, I was just turning around, getting crushed by random asteroids as the system around me got attacked. Even with just a reference sheet of commands, you are so screwed starting this up, you need a thorough look at the manual even knowing this is trying to be a complex space game.

The obvious bits are easy to sum up. Joystick moves, the button fires. It works well considering the vintage. Often games in 3D space at this time just didn't work very well. This does, stars move with a swiftness they should. You get two shots on-screen, represented by two photon tubes. You can get hit and you can lose one, which will cost you. Because aiming is tricky, the AI is good, far better than it should be for a game like this in an era such as this. They duck and weave like...well, like I do trying to escape. Being able to fire two helps correct for your mistakes.

You control speed via the number buttons, 1 is a small decrease in speed, 2 small increase, 3 stops, 4 is 30 and 5 is 100. Which is a bit low, feels like we could have used more variations. You can easily outrun enemies at 100, so lower speeds are better for dogfights. I found out the hard way that going around at full speed all the time makes dogfights long and tedious to deal with. Starting off I really should have taken advantage of the ability to adjust speed more.

At this point, I started to decipher the bizarre GUI. V is velocity or speed, e is energy. At this point things are not so obvious. R is range, which at about 17000 turns infinite. This is not actually infinite, just the game's excuse for saying it's above it's ability to register. See, the two weird symbols to the left of R are your direction, just two axis, because true 3D is hard and annoying. The one with lines at the top and bottom is the vertical axis. They turn into infinite at about 100 degrees. SH is shields, N is object number. Wait, object number? Why would the player need to know that? TR is related to the tracking computer. I just realized I never used that, and never felt like I was missing out for not having it.

This brings me to the views the game has. You can look in front and back, but unlike some games, you can shoot in both directions. You even get reversed turning when you shoot from the back. It feels very cool in action and to hit something behind you. Considering how tricky it can be to hit something in front of you, I dig having a section option.

Then there are special views. First, a long range scanner which is difficult to decipher. There's no point of reference, like everything in this game, so it can be hard to read it vertically. I think that up is front, but I could be wrong.

Big objects are friendly bases, yellow dots are hostile forces, the big square is my guy and the four dots are Stargates, red for further from Earth, blue for closer to.

Then we have the sector screen, where you track where friendly planets and enemy ships are, and where you warp to. This only shows the current sector, to get to the others, you need to find a Stargate.
 

There's supposed to be a yellow diamond in the middle of the screen, but I guess it flashes in such a way I didn't notice.

Warping is tricky to get down. You need to center the screen on the portal there, which the game tries to prevent by moving you away, but it's not clear how long until you reach your destination. Get it wrong and you can be shot clear across the map. I dislike this, I don't mind being wrong but I dislike being wrong without proper feedback. Whether you make it or not feels like the whim of the computer.

 

Another case in point, seems this moon has already suffered some damage.

You restore the ship's state by getting close to a planet. It's tricky, because you need to be a specific amount of degrees nearby and between 400 and 500 points away. You basically have to give it a little throttle, and hope you don't accidentally crash into the planet. The game suggests you actually destroy planets so that the Myons don't, since they get two fighters and a base star for doing so. I feel like it's wiser to just cut them off before they can surround a planet.

I thought I took a good screenshot of one of these babies, but apparently the fighters are just as invisible to the screenshotting eye.

So, combat. Aiming is very responsible, as I mentioned, but there's a disconnect between the aiming and the hitting. I'm not really sure at what point I can hit these ships and at what point the crosshair is aiming at. This is most pronounced with the fighters. Their size does not seem connected to the places I can hit them. There's a big chunk of it that seems like it can't be hit, and the fighters duck and weave enough that I can't get a consistent target on it. Other ships, oddly are easier targets, their design guides you more towards center mass. The fighters and Base Stars go towards you automatically, but the cruisers don't until you get within 3000 points. Expect to chase them a lot.

A cruiser, the least obvious of the enemy ships.

The overarching conflict continues on though. You're on a loose timer, if enemy ships surround one of the bases in a sector with 4 squadrons, which are the planet and its moons, they'll destroy it, and get those two fighters and a base star. So, you cannot afford to be in a dogfight like that, going on for an eternity. Fortunately, squadrons don't ever join up, so just clear out the weaker ones first and you can buy yourself some time. You're not dead until you get killed or Earth gets blown up, but this is one of those games where you'll be lucky to see the "real" end condition either way, rather than just death in a dogfight.

A Base Star, hiding behind it's shot.

Eventually, I manage to get it right, though how I'm not sure, just got used to the worse aspects. I clear out everything around Saturn and now I have to go through the Stargate picking off the stranglers. There's a lot of chasing here, going after ships, as the cruisers, which oddly look like X-Wings, require you to go after them to take them out. Going through a warp, going to ships, going to planets and then going through Stargates. I eventually lose, but only barely thanks to getting shot while my shields were damaged.
 

That's just pilot mode though, what about commander mode? Do I have a shot at saving Earth if you have control over a fleet of my own? Communication is done with the T command, this allows you to send a message. First, you type in the fleet you are sending it to, then the direction. Which are compass directions. It doesn't make sense, but at least I don't struggle to understand which is north and which is east. What is tricky is figuring out what fleets are on-screen. Because at first it seems like these aren't just the Saturn fleets, but no, they are just the Saturn fleets.

Movement is simple, but bear in mind that unless you send a command telling them to stop, they'll continue moving around. They'll even stop heading towards where you want if you don't tell them to ignore enemies on the way. For the most part, I don't see much need to have them move around. They start near a base almost always, so they're where I want them to begin with. Their long-term survival is rare, as they usually die at a rate of 1-to-1 with enemy ships. They're helpful, but sort of just command and forget.

The overarching strategy seems to be to just guard the areas around a base and make sure the enemy can't have four or more at once around one location. Friendly ships just give you a little more legroom at the start. I imagine in a full game you would be trying to stay ahead of the enemy forces, so that while they would be taking out a lot of the earlier systems, you would stop their efforts deeper in. In theory, it could result in a weird stalemate where you don't have the energy to go back to where they are, but they don't have enough ships to take out a planet. The way the game describes itself, they're supposed to always be heading towards Earth, so maybe that isn't a factor.

Eventually, with the aid of save states, I won a practice game. Past a certain point, the tediousness of the game becomes really clear. Yes, it's fun as a space combat game, but there's a lot of tedious flying through space. Going to places or ships, chasing after cruisers and constantly warping to the same places so you don't run out of energy. I can't really imagine getting through a game of this, since the practice game is an hour long. That is going to be one long journey. With that, let's get to the rating.

Weapons:
Two shots on-screen with the possibility of getting each tube damaged. It's kind of clever in some ways, but because it can be unclear where you're aiming, I think it kind of balances out. 1/10

Enemies:
Three kinds of enemies, with slightly different strategies for taking out. I note that in the practice game, the Base Star doesn't seem to have a shield the manual says it should. I don't know if this is a strange change for the easier mode or if they just forgot to put it in. 2/10

Non-Enemies:
They're never on-screen, but they're a helpful force, usually taking out enemies at a 1-to-1 rate, providing a bit of help starting out. It's nice being able to give them orders too, and not have it be some confusing mess. 2/10

Levels:
Fleet placement seems randomized, but bases have consistent sections. Way too much flying around nothing for comfort. 1/10

Player Agency:
Very smooth for a joystick game, with welcome keyboard commands for, well, the stuff a joystick shouldn't be expected to do. Being able to attack from the rear is very helpful, something more space games should have. There should have been more variation in your speed and the GUI is so confusing I only truly figured it out near the end of my playtime. 6/10

Interactivity:
Being able to shoot a friendly base doesn't really count.

Atmosphere:
It certainly succeeds at presenting a space atmosphere, but not quite at providing a hopeless battle the manual suggests. 2/10

Graphics:
Very crude, the variation in size is nice, but nothing is appealing to look at. 1/10

Story:
None, in-game.

Sound/Music:
There's some subtle sound effects, including detailed engine roar. It's limited, but very nice, shooting, getting hit, all the major actions the game has. 3/10

That's a respectable 18.

Checking reviews, opinions range on everything, people both praise and criticize each aspect. I feel like there's not much I haven't covered in some way already. It's positive though, since it managed to make it to every magazine around then, including for the ZX Spectrum port I didn't play. I neglected to mention that you can't save except as an implication in the whole "a game takes a hour" thing. Less troublesome when there are emulators with save states, but that's always a form of cheating, even if I tend to use them whenever I can.

Next time, I think we'll finally get back to Commander Keen and see the series have its official conclusion. At least as far as it matters for most people.