A&B Computing


Armatron
By Z and z
Archimedes A3000

 
Published in A&B Computing 7.04

Armatron

The object of Armatron is to discover and defuse the bomb which is somewhere in the complex, whilst avoiding the enemies and picking up gold tokens which can be traded in, to receive extra equipment. All of this must also be done in a limited amount of time.

Starting Armatron, the music disappears and displayed on the screen, is your spacecraft and various other objects which are only there for decoration.

You can move up, down, left or right, using your predefined keys and, once you move off the first screen, two hamburger-like enemies move in a pattern around the screen. They can be fired at, but re-appear at their point of entry again. A bomb is located in the corner. When you drive your rather badly craft into this bomb, you must solve a numerical puzzle. Time is extremely tight in this puzzle and you must concentrate in order to complete it. If you do, you are automatically given five extra equipment tokens, which at any time can be traded in for a weapon which can give you a great deal of help as you journey on.

Forcefields block your way on many occasions, and you must fire at the switch which is usually on the same screen in order to remove them.

Enemies in the game include flashes which are fatal on contact, as well as the gun turrets which release a bevvy of bullets all around the screen.

Lives are very quickly used, so conserve them as much as you can. According to the leaflet that was enclosed with my copy of the game, there are also secret passages which can be located in order to ease the danger in your task.

For an Archimedes game, this is not up to standard. If this game were to be produced on a BBC Micro, it would be good, but the unrealistic movement paired with the lack of any outstanding music whilst playing makes the Arc version unexciting.

You get what you pay for!

Brett Colley

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