Android Two (1983)

Name:Android Two
Number:173
Year:1983
Publisher:Vortex Software
Developer:Vortex Software
Genre:Top-Down Shooter
Difficulty:4/5
Time:1 hour 10 minutes
Won:No (65W/60L)

The sequel, I guess, to Android One. I had very little nice to say about that game. Android Two at first glance seems considerably more interesting, until I realized it was broadly the same game as the original, just with a more open-ended level. At which point I was going to cross it off my list...but then I realized that wasn't necessarily a bad thing; that this is closer to a remake of the original rather than a true sequel.

The starting area, surrounded by red robots. No idea what the radar in the lower right is supposed to be, but just above it is a mine detector.

Rather than the straight-forward and rather boring design of the last game, we have a fancy-looking open-ended game of the same nature as last time. Oh, and this is being done on the pride and joy of Britain, the ZX Spectrum. It's actually a good game on the surface. The objective is to find five millipede robots, kill them, then return to where we entered and the process repeats.

Blue robots at the top, they have a path to the millipede through the upper right hall.

The controls are simple, but slightly obtuse. OP move left and right, Q1 move up and down. Space shoots. The gun has a range of about 6 tiles. It's not the most precise thing I've controlled, but it works well enough. It's at a weird point where it's not good enough to work perfectly, but just enough that successfully dodging a tricky enemy feels exciting.

So the complex you're put in is a somewhat complex looping place, starting you off at a teleporter. This is of course where you have to return. Stopping you from reaching your targets are two types of robots. A blue robots that moves around in any line, left-right or up-down, and can be shot, and red robots that are invulnerable, but move in a single line in a predetermined fashion. Also, mines.

Damage is weird in this game. The manual describes it as you having lives, but it's basically five HP. You don't spawn anywhere else, you just remain where you are. Red robots walk in the other direction, blue robots die, and the landmine you stepped on doesn't harm you unless you step on it again. Kind of weird.

The really lucky times there are three at once!

The big enemy, the robot millipedes, will eventually be found. It's not a big place. To kill one, you shoot it in the head three times. This surprisingly works really well. Spaces are tight and you have limited range. This means you can't just sit somewhere safely and shoot it three times. When it works, it works really well, when it doesn't, it feels like your usual coin muncher. They move like the blue robots, except when they are unable to move, they flip, the head appearing where the tail was. Except this can happen at any time, not just when they can't move period. It's also annoying dealing with them and they're butting heads with a robot in a corridor, because it'll slowly follow the robot until it can't anymore.

For the most part it's all fine and dandy. You can easily predict where an enemy will move, and more importantly where they won't move. In a wide enough space without many red robots, you're fairly safe. As blue robots and millipedes increase, even the widest space is best left alone. Fortunately, you can camp out somewhere safe and wait for something to come after you. Everything still moves off-screen. Which can also be a problem. You can only predict the behavior of things you know are there, and blue robots can be anywhere. If you go into the place a red robot just went into, thinking you're safe, only to get battered by the red robot.

While it is exciting to move past a red robot or even a group of them successfully, a lot of the time these feel extremely generous considering the controls. You turn before you move, which means if you're tapping a button lightly, like if there's a landmine, you turn before moving. There are quite a few locations where you have to move around landmines in addition to red robots. Making it tense for all the wrong reasons. Finally, the time. You have limited time, just in case you thought you could camp for enemies. This actually makes things worse than you might think, because it's very unreliable to track moving millipedes, as I mentioned, so you have to wait for them to move, lest you get put in a horrible situation. I understand why it was put in, but it feels considerably at odds with any actual game design beyond extending playing time.

I eventually managed to do what I thought was a win. Kill the millipedes and then return to the start. Then I discovered that there's a second area, out of three. With no saves and no ability to restore health, my chances of getting any further were nil.

Weapons:
Simple weapon. 1/10

Enemies:
Three enemies that despite their problems create very interesting tactical situations. 3/10

Non-Enemies:
None.

Levels:
A somewhat interesting looping level. 3/10

Player Agency:
Despite the annoyance of both ZX Spectrum key placement and typical lagginess, it works. 4/10

Interactivity:
None.

Atmosphere:
Despite the system, genuinely tense as a game. 4/10

Graphics:
Garish but readable. 1/10

Story:
None.

Sound/Music:
Very annoying sound. 0/10

That's 16. Better than its predecessor, good for 1983, but not a must play today. Just what games of yore aspired to be, fun and simple. As such, not a whole lot to say about this one.

It's the home stretch for 1983, with only 5, maybe 4 games left.

Android One: The Reactor Run (1983)

Name:Android One: The Reactor Run
Number:156
Year:1983
Publisher:Vortex Software
Developer:Vortex Software
Genre:Top-Down Shooter
Difficulty:4/5
Time:30 minutes
Won:Yes (55W/53L)

Vortex Software is one of Britain's more interesting action game developers of the '80s, pushing forward the capabilities of home computers and generally look pretty damn entertaining. Unfortunately, we're not seeing one of those today, we're seeing Android One, a game where you control a robot who has to destroy a reactor before it blows up. And by destroy, I mean shoot, because that's how this works.

The game, once you get past the title screen, which requires waiting to find out the command to start, dumps you here. On the GUI, despite all the noise, there are only three things of concern, your score, your lives (more like hit points) and the time limit. You can control the robot via either the keyboard or the joystick, and you're going to want to do the latter.
No matter which option you pick, the game is slow and stiff. I guess to imitate a robot. Using the joystick if I tap a direction I'm not going in, the robot turns. If you tap it quickly enough, too long and you walk a space in that direction. Kind of precise. More importantly, you'll very quickly note that the world consists of blocks and the robot takes up 2x1 blocks of space. Enemies take up one. If you hit the fire button, the robot shoots a stream some blocks away. You do indeed need to time this right, because enemies run fast enough that they can dodge you if you don't hit them just right.
Despite the player being stuck in an area with no escape, it is quite easy to get out, because the robot can shoot some walls. Mind you, he has to shoot each wall twice and shoot at least two high to get through, but its something you can do. Actually, have to do, because the object blocking your advancement to the next screen are these things. When I originally set out to decide on my 10 categories, when I thought up interactivity, I was thinking more shooting through wooden walls or blocking up chunks of buildings, not slowly cutting my way through a wall like some third-rate mining game.

Enemies, you get them in a few varieties. I'm not sure about the differences between some, but in general you have the blue kind, which just go up and down and you can't hurt them. The others, which move in weird patterns and can be hurt. All take a life and then die after doing so. Something interesting is that because of the tile focus, only one enemy can be in a tile at once, which means they walk into each other and then stop or move in a different direction. This also works in weird ways, if you're walking into an enemy's tile, you don't die, especially if its the blue ones, which only move up and down.

Now despite how crap this seems at first glance, and its not a wrong impression, its...okay, I guess. Some have that randomly designed level feel, but others come off as some thought were put into them. Not great or anything, but there was an attempt at getting the most out of the game's resources. Something you wouldn't think of twice in a much better game, but stands out a bit when everything else this year feels like it was made by someone discovering fire.

Eventually, one arrives at the reactor. After shooting their way through the various little robots, one shoots the reactor, causing a light show, the player's robot to spin around, and then enemies respawn and the player has to return to the start. This is considerably easier than the trip to the exit. While you could always do it, now you can just run past a considerable number of enemies safely. I'm not really sure the level design warranted a return trip though. Rushing back through an area should feel like a mad dash to escape an explosion, not more busywork.

Once you make it back to the start, the screen flashes again and your robot spins around, and the game seems to reset, minus the time you took to get back here. Guess the game goes on until you run out of time or quit out of boredom.

Weapons:
The laser, like everything else, feels slow and unwieldy. It is not terribly fun to use. 1/10

Enemies:
I'm not entirely certain of the behavior of most enemies, but it felt like there was a little effort put into the AI of the enemies, not a lot, but some. I just wish I had any idea what it was... 2/10

Non-Enemies:
None.

Levels:
Its kind of hard to tell when everything else is so bad, but it does seem like there are some good ideas in here. Even going through a giant wall section might be better if other elements were designed in better ways. 2/10

Player Agency:
The control scheme is an unwieldy mix of stiffness and imprecision that doesn't work. At the best of times it feels like you're fighting against it, at the game is asking you to do something that's impossible. 2/10

Interactivity:
I guess destroying the walls counts. 1/10

Atmosphere:
A reactor is going to blow up, let's slowly destroy some walls to get there! 0/10

Graphics:
This is not an appealing game. 0/10

Story:
Not even the back of the box pretends to care about it. 0/10

Sound/Music:
Typical noise you'd expect to here as sound effects at this time. It works, but its unpleasant to listen to for any length of time. Especially screen transitions. 1/10

That's 9.

I don't really have anything to add, its pretty unnoteworthy. Hopefully future games from Vortex Software will turn out to be better.