Thrust (Commodore 64)

Although I'll be a mixture of the great and the good and the weird and the wonderful today, it seems only right that I begin with a game that is considered to be perhaps the Godfather of budget games... Thrust.

I'll be honest... I hated Thrust when I first played it. It was keyboard only, for a start. We 64 owners were used to using joysticks to play games. And who wanted that big brown thing perched on their lap? Nope... hated it.

For some reason, though, I kept going back to it. Maybe with it being so highly rated I figured it was me that was wrong about it, maybe I just felt drawn back to it to at least try and complete a couple of levels... but eventually I was drawn in.


This doesn't look like it'll end well...

The premise is pretty simple sci-fi stuff... our planet is running out of energy, but it's known there is a system of planets that was mined to death years ago, and the plan is to send in a ship to retrieve a power pod from each planet, blow up its main generator thus setting off a world-destroying cataclysmic explosion, and then get out of there with the power pod before you're caught in the blast.

Naturally, it's not as easy as it sounds. And the real beauty of Thrust lies in the perfectly balanced gameplay. The controls are absolutely spot on, the inertia is absolutely spot on... when you connect to the power pod and try to lift it clear, you really feel the extra weight. And then you go spinning out of control and implode on a cavern wall. Well, I do.


OK... sooo... now what?

Just when you start getting good at it, the game turns into an utter bastard and will throw in a new element to keep you on the hop and further test your skills. Get a few levels into the game and you'll have to deal with reverse gravity. Get further still and the walls of the caverns become invisible. Yes, that's ridiculous... you can only see the walls when you activate your shield.

Thrust, unbelievably, is twenty-five years old this year. Quite often, home computer games from that time have aged badly, and aren't what you remember them to be. Thrust, however, is still as fresh, playable, demanding and entertaining as it ever was. It seems incredible that it only cost £1.99 when it was released. It's an absolute stone-cold classic, and if you've never played, get it downloaded right now. Better still, get onto eBay and buy the setup you need to play it for real. It's an amazing game.

*Thrust did not originate on the Commodore 64... in fact, it was a full-price release on the BBC computer. Amazing that it wasn't full-price when released on other systems.

Oids (Atari ST)

Oids is a rubbish name for a game. What kind of Oids? Androids? Humanoids? Haemorrhoids? You need to be more specific with these things.

Still, despite that obvious flaw, Oids has gained a reputation as one of the ST's finest games. That being the case, it's always been high on my list of games to play for the blog, despite not having a clue about what kind of game it is.

It's actually a bit of a mixture of games. There's a fair bit of Thrust there, a little bit of Lunar Lander and some Choplifter. I would actually say, having played this, that Gravitron 2 (and probably the original) was as much inspired by this as Thrust.


That's the way. Clear a nice little landing space.

The Oids of the title, so say the instructions, are android slaves (see? Why didn't it say this in the title?) that you need to free from their prisons and rescue. They're held across many different planetoids (oh... more than one type of Oids... now I see), and you must fly in in your V-wing ship to rescue them. As you would expect, it's not as easy as it sounds...

Having said that, at first, it appears as though it is as easy as it sounds. I was quite disappointed as I was able to fly around at leisure and at no great speed, picking off ground installations as I pleased and rescuing Oids with the greatest of ease. The pace was extremely slow and the game was very easy... I couldn't see why this was so highly regarded.


I flew into one of those little sun things once. Don't know where I ended up.

But once I'd got a few levels into the game, it all kicked off. Reverse gravity has a massive effect as you're trying to negotiate the landscape, ensuring you have to take things carefully. Installations will fire at you, as you would expect. They're more devious than that, though... some will launch homing missiles, whereas other, hidden installations will appear and launch a barrage of firepower at you.

Luckily, as you would expect of any game where you control a V-shaped spaceship, you have a limited shield. And of course, you can fire back. You've got your normal peashooter bullets... effective enough to take care of most ground installations. For those things where you need a bigger bang, you've got a mushroom-cloud-laying mofo of a bomb. Satisfying.


Argh! Erm... alright, I get the message!

Once you fill up with rescuees (eight) or clear the planetoid of captives, you can dock with your mothership and deposit the Oids to safety. It's a simple and tried-and-tested gameplay mechanic, but it usually works, and when it's particularly well done as it is with Oids, it's a joy.

When Oids first started, I was expecting a fast-paced blast. It's not like that at all, it's far more measured and a little bland to start with. But a few levels in, it becomes a real challenge and a real test of your gaming skills. Although it's not really a shoot 'em up, it certainly becomes frantic as you try to fend off the planets' defences and rescue the poor, downtrodden Oids. I've had a lot of fun with this game... I can see myself playing it for a long time to come.

Gravitron 2 (PC)

If you thought my games shelves were a bit of a disgrace, with unplayed game after unplayed game, then you should see my Steam list. The amount of times that I've bought a game, particularly when it's on a Special Offer, and then not played it is ridiculous. So I thought I'd tap into that reserve today, and I picked Gravitron 2.

I pretty much knew what Gravitron 2 was about before I played it... I knew it was like Thrust. And Thrust is a game that I have really enjoyed over the years, although I've never been all that good at it.

All of that applies to Gravitron 2.


Look! Little people. Now, how do I get to them in one piece?

If you don't know what Thrust is about (or Gravitar, the arcade game from which it no doubt sprang), then read on. The game is set in space, and you have to navigate your craft down to a planet's surface and blast a reactor, which will trigger a world-destroyng explosion (meaning you have to get back into orbit, sharpish). Of course, it's never as easy it sounds. These planets are extremely well-armed, with turrets firing at you in defence of their world. As an extra line of defence, the further you travel into the game, the more inaccessible the reactors become, with tight caverns needing to be negotiated before you can get to the reactor. It's an intense test of nerves, reflexes and skill.

Gravitron 2 gives you all of that, plus a few extras. For instance, there are now people to be rescued from around the reactor. I'm not sure whether they're scientists or colonists, or what. But they're there, and you can land and pick them up. There are also extra defences, such as laser barriers that switch on and off and serve to make life even more difficult. Aesthetically, the game ladles on the pretties, ensuring that although it's still a simple-looking game, it doesn't appear stuck in the Eighties.


I think we all know what happened here...

I did explain that I was never very good at Thrust, and it therefore follows that I'm not very good at Gravitron 2, even though it's a more forgiving game (you can take a number of hits per ship, whereas in Thrust, well, you can't). That being the case, there may be even more to the game later on that I haven't been able to discover. Even so, I can state categorically that Gravitron 2 is a very good Thrust game indeed. Thrust cost £1.99 about 25 years ago... Gravitron 2 costs £2.99 today, via Steam, I'd say that was more than fair.