Lunar Jetman

Infobox VG| title = Lunar Jetman


developer = Tim and Chris Stamper
publisher = Ultimate Play The Game
designer =
engine =
released = Late 1983 (Spectrum) ["Personal Computer Games", issue 2, page 7. Newsfield Publications, November 1983]
genre = Arcade
modes = Single player
ratings = N/A
platforms = ZX Spectrum
BBC Micro
media = Cassette
requirements = 48K RAM (Spectrum)
32K RAM (BBC)
input = Keyboard, joystick (Spectrum)
Keyboard (BBC)

"Lunar Jetman" is a ZX Spectrum video game developed and released by Ultimate Play The Game in 1983. The game is the second in the Jetman series, following on from his adventures in "Jetpac". In the game, Jetman has to defend the Earth (and himself) from a hostile alien base. The game was written by Chris Stamper with graphics by Tim Stamper.

Introduction

Typically for an Ultimate release, players are given a tantalising and cryptic introduction:

:"I can't help her...

:She's breaking up...

:She's breaking up!!...

:CRACKLE...

:After Jetman's poorly assembled multi-stage rocket started to disintegrate in warp space, he manages to crash land on a strange undiscovered world, inhabited by hundreds of restless aliens intent on the total destruction of the planet Earth.

:Desperate to regain the lost minerals, the aliens initialise their ancient attack mechanisms. All around, huge missile installations erupt from deep within the bounds of the planet, surrounded by their own strategic defence stations.

:Their huge linoleum shelled missiles glisten in the distant sunlight as the multitronic warheads auto-arm and poise for attack.

:With no hope of help from the nearby and unaware Earth, JETMAN has to destroy all of the installations single-handed before the imminent destruction of his home planet.

:Using only his Hyperglide Moon Rover to carry the strange equipment and supply Bridging units, with any other equipment he can find to complete his mission.

:Pity he can't find the operation manuals!"

Gameplay

Again taking on the role of Jetman, players find themselves on the surface of a small purple moon. Similarly to "Jetpac", the player can move around slowly on foot, or use a jetpac to leave the ground and navigate the moon faster. Unlike "Jetpac", this time Jetman's jetpac has limited fuel, and must be topped up regularly. In addition to the jetpac, the player has a moon rover for ground travel, inside of which they are (mostly) invulnerable. However, the moon rover can only negotiate perfectly smooth ground, and the player may need to use bridging kits to fill in craters on the moon's surface (these are obtained from the rover). The rover doubles up as a refuelling point for Jetman's jetpac.

Aside from the rover and its bridging kits, Jetman has access to three other pieces of equipment, all of which can be carried on the back of the rover. The most important of these is a bomb. This is used to destroy alien bases when they are encountered, and must be dropped onto them while Jetman is flying. Another piece of equipment is a cannon that may be mounted onto the rover (facing either direction). As the rover is otherwise unequipped with weaponry, this can be a useful way to rack up points blasting aliens while searching for the alien base. The final piece of equipment is a teleporter (or, rather, a pair of teleporters). Entering this instantaneously transports the player (and bomb) to the teleporter's twin, allowing rapid transport around the moon.

Gameplay itself requires Jetman to locate and destroy (with the bomb) a series of alien bases on the surface of the moon. Each new base appears with the destruction of the previous one. To accomplish this task, either by flying the bomb directly, or transporting it on the back of the rover, the player must take the bomb to the alien base and then drop it onto the base. Although, as noted above, Jetman is (almost) invulnerable inside his rover, outside it he is at the mercy of large numbers of flying aliens, although his jetpac-mounted lasers help against these.

Each base needs to be destroyed within a strict time limit. If this limit expires before the base is destroyed by Jetman, two missiles are launched from the base - one for the Earth, the other for Jetman's rover (hence its "almost" invulnerability). Fortunately, even if the base is not destroyed on time, Jetman can still save the day by intercepting, and destroying, the missile in flight. When either the base or missile is destroyed, a new base is generated and play starts over once again. After several bases have been destroyed in succession, new (and increasingly hazardous) varieties of flying aliens assault the player.

=

Trivia

* "Lunar Jetman" was one of only a few games to support the Currah Microspeech speech synthesis module.
* Reports of the Hyperglide Moon Rover having a trailer (as in the cover art) were bogus and were only prompted by fake screenshots in a review magazine [http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/stevo/gamefaq/gamefaq.htm#6.1] .
* The game was followed by a third installment, "", released for the NES in 1990.
* The Jetman series spawned a cartoon series published in CRASH magazine (for an example, see [ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/magazines/Crash/Issue39/Jetman/CR39Jetman01.jpghere] ).

References

External links

* [http://www.ultimate-wurlde.com/games/jetmanintro.shtml "Lunar Jetman"] at Ultimate Wurlde
*
* [http://www.crashonline.org.uk/01/jetman.htm "Lunar Jetman" review] at "CRASH" magazine
* [http://retrospec.sgn.net/game-overview.php?link=ljm "Lunar Jetman" remake] for the PC