All good things must come to an end....

....and in this case it's my trusty XP PC which has lost the will to live after years of sterling service.  I can just about scrape enough money together to get a spanking new i7 PC, but it will take a few weeks to spec one up, get it built, delivered, restore my data and set it up to my liking.  In the meantime I won't be able to update my blog but will respond to any comments from my wife's laptop.  Take care and I'll be back as soon as I can.

Quazatron - Sinclair Spectrum - 1986

Basically, Quazatron is Paradroid for the Spectrum.  It was written by Steve Turner who took the gameplay from Andrew Braybrook's Commodore 64 classic and moulded it onto an isometric landscaping engine he had been working on. It was decided the graphical limitations of the Spectrum meant it was not suited to running a straight port (and they were probably right!).

Your aim is to destroy all the hostile alien droids in the underground city of Quazatron on the planet of Quartech.  You take control of a droid called KLP2 (or ‘Klepto’) which has capabilities similar to the influence device from Paradroid. The enemy robots vary in power, armour and weaponry.  This is denoted by the digits they carry - the letter shows the type of droid and the number indicates the power (1 is the toughest, 9 the weakest). You can damage the hostile droids by ramming them, shooting them, or pushing them off ledges.  You can also scavenge them for parts by grappling with them.  If you put Klepto into grapple mode and ram another robot it brings up the same mini game found in Paradroid.

Looks familiar.

You need to fire ‘pulsers’ across a circuit board to change most of the central bar to your colour.  A successful grapple allows you to remove parts from a defeated droid including power and drive units, weapons, chassis and any special devices it may be carrying.  Some parts may be damaged during the grapple; a more decisive victory means more items will remain intact and usable.

Winning a grapple allows you to salvage equipment from the defeated droid.

Moving around the play area, shooting and ramming robots takes energy.  How quickly power is consumed depends on the parts you have scavenged e.g. energy is rapidly used up if a heavy chassis and powerful weapon are combined with weak power and drive units. Klepto's energy level is denoted by his expression.  Happy is good but when he starts to look glum it is time to search out a recharge point or grapple another robot.

Once a level has been cleared of droids the lights go out and it is off to the next.  You can travel between levels via lifts.  Consoles are available which can be accessed to display a map of the current level, a plan of the levels and a database of robots. The map shows the location of lifts, charging points and other consoles.

You can access a level map from the consoles.

 
Although Quazatron is a good game, it has several issues that prevent it being as good as Paradroid.  The main problem has to be the scrolling which is slow and quite jerky.  It is not as noticeable when you are concentrating on the game but is still annoying. Controlling Klepto can be quite difficult too when negotiating the terrain while trying to chase down another robot - I put this down to the isometric viewpoint.  Another problem is when ramming or moving to a new level, a droid can sometimes become 'stuck' to Klepto, which can quickly drain your power or kill you if you are already low on power.  I would say the sound is above average for the Spectrum with some short tunes and decent effects.  Despite the criticisms I still like the game a lot  and think it deserves a place on my list.

The lights go out when a level is cleared.

Gradius - NES - 1986

My first taste of Gradius was a rather dodgy conversion on the Sinclair Spectrum under the alternative name of Nemesis.  Despite this I have since become a long time fan of the series from the arcade original to Gradius V on the PS2.  Konami have made a good fist of converting the arcade game to the NES, although there is one major issue which I will pick up on later.

Gradius is a horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up.  The game involves you controlling a ship called the Vic Viper and you have destroy the evil Bacterians who have taken over the planet Gradius.  What made the game unique at the time was the Power Meter. Power-ups are dropped when destroying certain formations or certain individual enemies. Each power-up collected highlights the next upgrade on the meter allowing the player to choose which upgrades are fitted to the ship and in what order.  Power-ups range from Speed Up to the mysterious '?' (or shield to you and me).  The power-up most associated with Gradius is the 'Option' which is an orb that follows your ship around replicating its firepower. Up to two 'Options' can be carried in this version of the game.

Gradius is played over several stages, each stage ending in a rather weak boss with a predictable firing pattern.  However, preceding each boss the scrolling stops and you are bombarded by attacks from all sides - projectiles from a couple of volcanoes on the first level and a mass of kamikaze enemies on the second.
 

The infamous volcanoes.  If there's a safe spot I haven't found it.

The sound is good, as are the graphics though they do flicker slightly in places.  My one major gripe is with the punishing difficulty level.  When you lose a life you lose all your weapon upgrades.  On the original arcade game you are guaranteed to get a few power-ups in front of you to get you started again.  On the NES you are lucky if Speed Up is highlighted on the Power Meter.  With my skill level the next two lives are normally lost in very quick succession and then it's game over.  Overall though, Gradius on the NES is still very good game in it's own right and I am enjoying the challenge.

Moai heads regularly appear throughout the series.