By: Blue Moon Software
Copyright (c) 1994 Lee Perkins
If you are fascinated by space flight, but can't bear to live without your car racing games, I think I have discovered something that will interest you! Skyroads 3D is best described as a bizarre cross between S.T.U.N. Runner and Jump Bug, with some rather awesome interstellar scenery thrown in for good measure. The game has a simple concept, but mastery of the technique over all six training tracks is another matter entirely.
You are at the controls of your spacecar, which has a limited supply of fuel and oxygen. The object is to complete the course without running out of either item, smacking into something solid, or plunging from the roadway suspended in space. This is a tough order to fill, since most of the track has huge gaps, narrow tunnels and monolithic barriers scattered along its length. The car can jump over some gaps, provided it has reached sufficient acceleration. If not, the car will plunge into the void, presumably carrying a rather puzzled pilot wondering what happened to the laws of zero-Gee physics!
Some sections of the track have peculiar qualities: A "sticky" track slows the car, "slippery" reacts badly to sudden changes in direction, "boost" increases speed, "supplies" replenishes fuel or oxygen, and a "burning" track blows the car into a cloud of ionized gas. Finito. A pretty hairy sort of course, don't you think?
Skyroads 3D does not require installation, since it will run directly from floppy disk (shock/horror!) A small surprise in these days of rampant RAM-grabbing, bloated cyber-trinkets, but it does come at a price. The demo can be copied onto one's hard drive, but if you attempt to run it, the display mode autodetect routine seems to go gaga. I assume that the full version rectifies this.
Reviewed on: PC 386 SX-33, Sound Blaster Pro audio card
Recommended retail price: $10.00 per 3.5 HD floppy disk Challenge: 90% Entertainment: 80% Sound: 65% Graphics: 75%Software supplied by: Trojan Computers Pty. Ltd.