• Completed & Reviewed by Neil Collins

Herobotix by Rack-It is game that I played on the Amstrad CPC464, but not on the C64. I always wondered whether it had an ending as I couldn't get anywhere in the game because the map seemed too large and confusing for me to make any progress...

Armed with my emulator, cheats and a piece of graph paper, I decided that today was the day I found out. The game is quite simple in design with average graphics. The action takes place in many similar looking single screens which link together with hundreds of passageways and tunnels. Many are blocked with force fields that need to be turned off at terminals scattered throughout the map. The aim is to find and collect the pieces of a super weapon which allows you to blow up the main computer and escape. There are tons of aliens and robots that will kill you, so you need to be pretty good to live long enough to beat the game. The sound is ok; it plays smoothly and there's a lot to explore and map out. It's a reasonable budget game that will keep you busy for quite some time - although the action does get dull quite quickly. After mapping it out, I finally made some progress after years of trying. At last... I was about to find out whether it had an ending...

Yer man reaches his ship...

...and teleports himself inside (the lazy get!)

In he goes...

...and off he goes.

The End.

HOW WAS IT COMPLETED?: I used some infinite energy pokes and mapped the game out. Eventually I found all the weapon pieces and made it to the end screen.

SO WHAT HAPPENS?: On entering the final screen of the map we see our herobot teleport aboard a large spaceship - which sits in a docking bay. The ship exits the bottom of the screen as you hear the engines power up. The final screen shows some text which reads 'CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE MISSION. ON ARRIVAL REPORT TO HEADQUARTERS FOR DEBRIEFING'. A star field zooms by in the background and a cool little tune plays.

• Vinny: Here's a game I've been meaning to play for ages! I used to love playing this back in the day and always thought that it never had a game ending and so I never persevered with it. Little did I know that hiding in the background was a nice little ending. Thanks to Neil for all the hard work and effort in obtaining this ending...
  
  As for the ending... I like it :-) Cute, but a little too quick and bare. 5/10 from me too.

FINAL SAY: A spaceship, some animation, a jolly tune - that's pretty good!

G.E. RATING: 5 / 10

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