The Colony

(Mindscape, 1988, Macintosh)

While only in b&w (the majority of 1988 Macintoshes were not yet in color), this game was still years ahead of its time. It had a fluid 360 degree 3D environment (though the graphics were very basic), and quite a few objects to interact with. The mission involved landing on a remote Colony, to see why communications with that area have ceased. Your ship suddenly crashes on the planet after a freak astral phenomenon, leaving you looking for an alternate power supply; without it, you're stuck here! Escape won't be easy, because the Colony is over-run with energy-hungry insects from a parallel dimension...and you're their next target! The storyline continues in the form of still-active computer journals (all Macintoshes; a cute touch), which soon tell the tale of an added challenge; the colony's children have been put in cyrogenic capsules, safe from the alien threat, and you must put these capsules in your ship, to bring them back to Earth. Meanwhile, the only power source is the main reactor core, which is being guarded by the alien queen (of course)...and she's invincible! After it's all over, the reward was a fitting finale, complete with musical score (1988 Macs were even better in sound than some 1990 PCs), and the end of the alien threat; using your ship's doomsday weapon, you blow up the colony from orbit. Kaboom! While this game was mostly an exercise of dodging the enemy as much as defeating them, it was a great interactive thriller, and yet another of Techtite's choices for Top 50 Multimedia Classics. One excellent game!

Rating : Deep Impact.

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