For some time it has been clear that the Vic 20 is slowly sinking
into the sunset. In spite of the thousands of Vic owners, software
quality seems to be sinking too. This program, I am afraid, does nothing
to allay my fears.
The scenario is depressingly familiar and is essentially of the
Defender species. You control a spaceship equipped with the latest
miracle weapon and attempt to defend humanoids from an unbelievable swarm
of aliens with an even more unbelievable life cycle. Nothing new or
original.
Technically the program is above average. The aspect ratio of the
screen is tweaked to give a wider and shorter screen. Hi-res
gives reasonable results. Use of sound is poor. Sixteen levels of
difficulty are available but in reality higher levels were simply
faster and I couldn't detect an increase in aggression.
If this had appeared in the first year in the Vic's life I would have
considered it to be a cut above the rest. Considering the current state
of the programming art, however, it struggles to be mediocre. In view of
the high quality software from Romik for the Commodore 64 this is even
more disappointing.
13th March 1984
