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TLL or Tornado Low
Level to give the full title is an arcade game for the Sinclair Spectrum released in 1984. In the game you control a Tornado bomber and
have to destroy targets laid out over a scrolling wraparound play area. There are five targets which are shown on a
map at the start of each mission. You
‘hit’ targets be flying over them at (surprise, surprise) low level – you don’t
need to press any key to hit the targets it is done automatically.
The landscape is
displayed in a skewed top down view which gives a 3D effect. As I said the play area is wraparound which
makes it seem larger than it actually is.
This makes the targets easy to find on your radar, and some which appear
far away on the map can actually be quite close. As you have to fly at low level the difficulty
comes with avoiding structures such as buildings, electricity pylons and bridges,
though you can fly under the bridges and cables. A neat touch is the shadow of the plane
which helps gauge your altitude.
There is no doubt
that TLL is a hard game. The plane flies at two speeds – fast with the
wings swept forward and faster with them swept back. This makes hitting the small targets
challenging and requiring several passes.
Later in the game the awkward position of the targets in difficult terrain
doesn’t help. The time limit and finite amount of fuel just add to the pressure, although you can land to refuel.
It’s still a very
good game though, with a graphical style that surprisingly was only used
once again in the follow up, Cyclone. The scrolling is fast and smooth for the
time, though the sound is limited. The
game is colourful too with the dreaded Spectrum attribute clash being well contained. Although TLL
is a difficult game it is still addictive and takes a while to get frustrating.
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| The round object is one of your targets. |
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| The mission map can be viewed when the aircraft is on the ground. |
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