Personal Compuer Games


Buck Rogers: Planet Of Zoom
By Coleco
Coleco Adam

 
Published in Personal Computer Games #11

Buck Rogers: Planet Of Zoom

Buck Rogers' Planet of Zoom is the first super game-pack for the new Adam home micro from Coleco.

Your mission is to get to the planet of Zoom before an alien force devastates the planet. Your problem being that fleets of alien spacecraft try to keep you from getting there.

There are ten different screens of action to battle through. These include encounters in a trench, space, a bridge, the planet and a space warp. In all the battles the alien craft attack in formation whilst you have to dodge and weave between obstacles.

Buck Rogers: Planet Of Zoom

Some careful judgement is needed as the walls or towers appear in the distance. You have to see where the gap is going to appear, blast the aliens in your way and then use split-second timing to swerve onto the safe route.

Your craft can thrust faster through each sector whilst zapping the aliens. If the number of aliens in a sector are destroyed in the time limit for the screen a special bonus is awarded.

Unlike most arcade games you must survive for a set time limit before going on to the next screen, and there is a tendency to sneak a look at the clock!

Buck Rogers: Planet Of Zoom

If you complete all ten stages you start over on a new mission with the aliens attacking in a faster, more intelligent pattern.

Whilst there are many screens of action the scrolling is very jerky. The use of colour is very good and real skill is needed for the higher levels of play. The characters are quite well defined but because of the jerky action they seem blocky.

As a first release it is not too promising but Coleco have considerably enhanced the new games about to be released, Dragon's Lair and Donkey Kong Jr (this being particularly good), so Adam owners will not have to wait too long for some of the best games for their micro.

Tony Takoushi