Cybertron Mission

Cybertron Mission

Cover art
Developer(s) Matthew Bates
Publisher(s) Micro Power
Platform(s) Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 64
Release date(s) 1984
Genre(s) Shooter
Mode(s) Single player
Distribution cassette

Cybertron Mission is a two-dimensional shooter game, released by Micro Power (a.k.a. Program Power) in 1984 for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron and later ported to the Commodore 64 in the same year. The game is heavily influenced by the 1982 Atari 8-bit computer game Shamus, which was itself inspired by the 1980 arcade game Berzerk.

Gameplay

The player controls a man who has penetrated the electrified Cybertron Fortress, in order to retrieve the priceless treasures within - namely golden keys, rings and bars.

The player character has 8-directional movement, and may shoot in the direction he is facing. The objective of each level was to find all the listed treasure, and then touch the safe, located at a random position on the level. The amount of treasure required increased by one item every level, up to the maximum of six. Cybertron Mission had four maze-like levels, repeating the series every four levels, with palette shifts in order to make them appear different.

There are four enemy types. Spinners (appearing on all levels) move blindly towards the player, but cannot harm him even when touching, unless he walks into them. Clones (appearing from level 2 onwards) move pseudo-randomly, and shoot in the direction they were moving/facing. Cyberdroids (appearing from level 3 onwards) move in straight lines for a period. They change direction when they hit a wall, see the player, or after a certain period of time. They will fire towards the player. The fourth enemy type is Spook, the ghost of a previous entrant to the fortress. He appears if you spend too long on any one screen, moving towards you and ignoring walls. He cannot be destroyed, but may be paralysed if shot. Touching the electrified walls of the maze kills the player.

Like many games of the era, Cybertron Mission does not end, each level simply brings a greater number of enemies to fight, which fire more frequently and with greater accuracy.

Critical response

The game was well received by the BBC/Electron press at the time. Electron User (#1.07, April 1984) concluded "It's exciting with plenty of variety, excellent graphics and interesting sound effects. You'll be a-mazed. And if you are anything like me, you won't be able to put your Electron down. A winner."

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