Starion

Starion

Developer	David Webb
Company
Publisher	Melbourne House
Musician	None
Release	1985
Platform(s)	CPC, C64, ZX Spectrum
Genre	Shoot-em-up, 3D
OS
Game Modes	1 Player
Controls
Media
Language
Information

A 3D shoot-em space adventure, the timing of the release of Starion could be said to be 'unfortunate' as the world and its maker was it getting itself very hot under the collar at the impending release of Elite. As a result, Starion is an oft-overlooked gem and one of the unsung heroes of the early CPC scene.

Description

The year is 2010 and your name is Starion. Fresh out of Space Academy, you have been selected as their brightest pupil to pilot the world's first timeship, the S.S. Stardate. Your mission: to boldly go back in time and correct the devastation wrought in the Space-Time continuum by evil aliens from all the other worlds that have achieved time travel before you.

As you progress through the game, your ability as a pilot increases. You are rewarded with promotion through the ranks from Novice to Supreme Commander. If and when you finally reach 'Event Zero' before the beginning of time (event one), then you become the earliest thing to exist and must by default assume the ultimate title of CREATOR of all that follows.

To save the universe from chaotic collapse you must proceed as follows ... Engage and destroy the enemy ship in your time zone by space to space combat. The dead alien's cargo will materialise in the form of an alphabetical letter. Collect this letter by coming to a complete halt in its centre. It will be stowed in your hold and attacks will continue until you have destroyed the enemy fleet and collected all the letters.

The on-ship computer will now ask you to unscramble the letters to identify the original cargo dislodged in time by the enemy. Having done this, you must locate the entrance to a time warp and fly into it. The time-grid will be displayed. Now decide which of the eight neighbouring time zones is the year in which your cargo belongs.

The jump is made and you appear in a new time-zone. Your first task is to land on earth (fly straight into it) and see if your cargo will solve the historical problem. If you have the correct cargo, then it will be ejected, your oxygen and fuel will be replenished and you may do battle with a new breed of enemy for the next item.

If you have jumped to the wrong time zone, then you will still have to destroy enough ships, mines and enemy missiles to liberate sufficient energy to create a new time warp, but no enemy cargo will appear. Only then will you be able to escape, still carrying the same cargo.

Once you have corrected history in all nine zones in the time-grid, the time warp formed after the next battle will take you to one of the eight neighbouring time-grids in the current time-block. You must take the first letter of each of the nine items you have moved and unscramble THESE to form a password, which, when entered into the flight computer will convince it that you are capable of inter-grid time travel.

Having completed all nine time-grids in the current block, you must unscramble the initial letters of the nine grid passwords to form the password for inter-block time travel down the next time warp. At this stage just one third of history has been corrected. When all three time blocks (and hence all 27 time-grids and all 243 time zones) have been corrected, you will have three inter-block passwords. Take the first and last letters of each, unscramble them, and you will have the six letter master password which will permit exit from the space-time continuum.

You will then yourself become event zero, and have achieved the title of: CREATOR

Ratings

Beaten to Mastergame status by the exellent Highway Encounter Amstrad Action still felt highly enough of the game to bestow Rave status upon it. They felt that: "The graphics really are stunning - it's just about the best version of space I've seen on any computer, let alone the Amstrad - and the idea of battling through to become the Creator certainly appealed to the megalomaniac in me."

Amtix were equally impressed and an Accolade award was quickly added to the growing swell of praise for the game declaring it to have broken the mould: "Starion is a star piece and I'm sure it's destined to take pride of place in many an Amstrad owner's software library.

ACU went a stage further again declaring the title to be their Game of the Month and their reviewer was "truly amazed by Starion. Just to update the screen at the rate they are managing to do so without flicker is pretty good, but to do 3D calculations in the same time is just incredible."