This game is set not too far into our future (some time around the year 2048). A new form of entertainment has developed, based loosely on the ancient "sport" of gladiator fighting. In the center of the arena a single droid stands alone, armed with an infinite supply of photon missiles and a protective shield dependent upon the droid's own strength. This is Floyd.

All around him, multitudes of ghastly mutated life forms move vertically and horizontally across the arena at near- lightning speed. When these reach one side of the arena, they're transported to some new location-and their trail of terror continues.

It is Floyd's objective to exterminate these progressively increasing waves of foul creatures, by either blasting each one with a photon missile (up to four missiles can be fired at anyone time), or by coming into contact with a creature, destroying it with his protective shield. This, unfortunately, results in the droid's strength diminishing. If it's reduced to zero, Floyd's destruction results.

However, also whizzing around the arena are lonely hearts, which, when collected by the droid, yield an increase in his strength. (Note that shooting the lonely hearts has no effect on Floyd's stamina.)

This then sets the scenario for Floyd the Droid Goes Blastin' - with the player controlling Floyd.

Listing 1 is the BASIC data used to create your copy of Floyd the Droid Goes Blastin'. Please refer to M/L Editor on page 11 for typing instructions.

Playing.

Your START key will begin the game. If you want to pause the action, hit OPTION. A second press of OPTION continues the game.

The droid is controlled via a joystick connected to port 1. Moving the joystick in the particular direction results in Floyd's moving that way. Pressing the trigger and moving the joystick in the appropriate direction will fire a photon missile.

You begin the game at leve1 1, with a strength of 10. For every alien with which you come into contact, you lose a strength point. Every lonely heart you collect gains you two strength points. For every creature you help Floyd destroy, your score is incremented by 1, and when all the creatures are annihilated, you advance to the next level. (Leve11 begins with one creature, level 2 with two creatures, and so on.) The game is over when your strength is reduced to zero.

If your score is high enough, you'll be able to enter your name (up to eight characters), at the appropriate position on the high-score table. To enter your name, move the joystick left and right to move the cursor. Moving the joystick up and down will alter the character under the cursor. When you've finished entering your name, press the trigger to leave the high-score table.

Floyd is waiting for your help. Enjoy the blasting!

Paul Lay studied Computing Science at Imperial College in London. He's owned his Atari 800 for about four years, and has had several programs published in various English magazines (personal Computer World, Page 6 Magazine and Atari User). He also wrote an arcade game, Sprong, released by Bignose Software in the U.K.