On the Gloomy Side of Luna

By Anders Carlsson

Genre: Moon Comber

 

As per the instructions, G.S.O.L is so called after ‘a certain music album’ but has been slightly changed to avoid copyright infringement (Shady Side of the Satellite by the Rivettes?).  Quite right too, because we take copyright very seriously at the CGC.

The aim of the game is to guide the buggy around the moonscape using not one, but TWO keys, collecting valuable metals and fuel along the way.  You must also be careful to avoid mines and ‘objects that are worthless and nothing happens’.  How to do this?  Dunno, as all 4 possible objects are marked by question marks and controlled by the RND command.  So GSOL is a lambada with lady luck rather than an intense strategy game.

 

The game doesn’t autostart after loading, bonus points there.  So after typing RUN and ENTER the game starts, but be prepared for the menacing landscape that scrolls toward you.  So if you want a cup of tea or a sneaky chug before it actually reaches you then make it a quick one!  Having said that it does make quite nice use of the SCROLL function.  The fact that you lose fuel at every move, get so little of it to begin with, and rely on chance to get more means it’s impossible to actually get a fair game.

I’d file this under Cassette 50 material, a nice idea with flawed gameplay.  Well done Anders!

The Hi-Score challenge starts at 51km and 70 points.

Tipshack: Look ahead and take your chances (in life I mean).

HACK PACK: Immeasurable Fuel:  Remove everything before the PRINT command in line 105

Download the game here, the instructions here and the BASIN file here.

Also, I’m a bit under the weather at the moment and wanted to mess about with some code: here is a hacked version to be played with Emulator on full: Asteroid®isk.  Hope you don’t mind Anders.