Game Review: Mediator (Commodore 64, Americana)

The game Mediator first started life in 1985, released by English Software, based in Manchester, at full price for the Atari XL and XE series. The game had been planned to be converted to the Commodore 64 and released by English, but as far as I know presently, all that did happen was that Celery Software released the Commodore 64 conversion in the USA. Step in Americana, who had the idea of issuing this game at budget price for the UK and Europe, which may appeal to the game player that way. Indeed, the front cover is very reminiscent of the original Atari release, complete with the boxes around the logos and the screen shot, which is of the final level. It made sense to therefore get as much as the original instructions on the inlay card, and with a two-player option available (turn based), it at least had that going for it.

Remediation

So, the plot of Mediator is this: a doomsday machine was placed above the satellites Xylos and Pholos, so if any nuclear activity was detected from their surfaces, the machine would activate and destroy the civilisations within. As saviour of the galaxy, you need to locate the good mediator and acquire the time crystal, which can despatch any destructive elements to another time zone. You leave Xylos, seek out the planet, and can be called to Xylos and Pholos at any time to combat the Zags of the Zagos Galaxy who are intent on attacking Pholos. What this does not quite tell you is that you effectively have to complete eight levels of challenge and send the crystal to ensure that one of the satellites is sent to another time zone. Just how you get there is somewhat bizarre, and cryptic too.

The instructions make note of the fact that they are somewhat cryptic clues. For example, for level two, it insists that skeletal remains and building a horse with them is your only recourse, with bones and soil going well together. In later levels, you note that if you had a hammer, you would compose a mortal melody. Whilst this gives you some idea as to what to do, for most players that would need a trial-and-error approach, with the game attempting arcade adventure elements not by being logic but by obfuscating the clues in a cryptic manner, with the clues the same as the instructions on the original release.

Beam Me Down

Once you decide with the F7 key if you want one or two player mode, you can press fire to start, with player one in port one. Your craft is at the top left, docked on to one of the satellites. You soon realise that fire is for thrust, left and right steers the craft. However, if you do not leave the satellite cleanly before attempting to make a turn, you hit the satellite and lose a life, which has to be somewhat frustrating. Wait till well clear and then turn, and you can then look at heading down towards the surface of the planet and get a way through its defences. Effectively, there is a little invading craft which hovers around the top of the screen and close to you – and you can fire at it with pressing up when within range.

Pressing down launches missiles towards the ground, and it is these you need to use to break through the defences of the planet. Once you have made enough of a gap, you can squeeze through, keeping an eye on the ground defences, and attempting to make a landing in the middle of the screen. Unfortunately, this is really finicky and unless you land at the right slowness of speed, and it is very slow, you will inevitably lose a life and have to start from the top again with a view to landing down. In fact, if you do land slowly, you will see a little man come out and be ready to beam down to the surface, where the next challenge awaits.

Forest of Doom

You land on the surface and on the left side is what seems like a pile of mud, with some bones in yellow on the right-hand side. You need to get across the water, but how do you do that? You have to shoot down the tree so a branch will land for you to get across. You can then collect the bones, go back over the branch, and head to the mud to deposit the bone. Inevitably though as time is against you, a siren will sound, and you head back to the planet’s landing pad. Now you have to head to the top, shoot the little invading craft and once done, this will automatically beam you back down to the surface, wherever you were, to do the next part of the challenge.

If you do manage to head back across, depositing the bones in the mud, you have enough to make a horse made of bone. You have to guide the horse across the branch to cross the river, and lead it off the right-hand side in time to complete that section, and on to the next one. I only got here once during play, and the solution having checked is really obscure. You have to lead the horse to water, get across to the small island via turtles and logs, climb the tree to get an apple, head down to that island, and then press and hold fire to throw the apple to feed the horse, so it gets reincarnated to be able to get across the water in one piece. It really becomes a bizarre case of trial and error at this point and is frustrating as a result.

The Forces Collide

All of that would be well and good if the game was at least fair. Unfortunately, it is not. The collision detection varies from being quite generous when shooting the way through to the planet surface, to somewhat way too finicky, especially when using the initial thrust to leave the satellite or attempting to land straight at the correct very slow speed for the connection to the planet and its landing pad. That will result in many a smashed joystick in frustration – and in one game I went exactly the same speed of landing on the pad, and one time I crashed and lost a life, and the other I was able to land. Such inconsistencies, and indeed the random nature of the siren appearing to send you back into space really does make for an experience that is not n necessarily the most enjoyable either.

Should you get past the apple and the horse, you then have to get a hammer, whilst at the same time dodging a bird that seems way too accurate in colliding with you, and use it to play the notes on what seems like a washing line. This seems to be based on some form of melody, but you are not told what this is, so you would end up pressing all the notes at different times in order to create some form of tune. There’s a section where a face appears in a swimming pool and you have to throw rocks at it whilst avoiding the other pretend mediators, so that the pool empties. Do that and it’s on to the next screen, where you need to hit the right lights whilst avoiding spiders and snakes, followed by a sliding block puzzle where you need to match the faces and one final attempt to get the time crystal before heading back into space to destroy a satellite – but which one?

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Mediator are average at best, with the two satellites being reasonably defined, a starfield background pleasant enough and the landing to the surface having some nice defences and missiles. The sections on the planet surface are a mess though, with ill defined trees, enemies and horses and a character that looks like the belly has got him big time. It seems a little primitive at times and not certainly Commodore 64 standards for the era. The sound effects are okay enough, and there are a number of tunes that play throughout the game that although at least are sonically sound, there is nothing that pushes the SID chip in any way and they become rather annoying after a while.

Final Thoughts

Whilst the plot and the gameplay itself in Mediator is at least attempting to do something different with the space genre, with a thrusting, landing and shooting space section, followed by those sections on the planet surface ultimately it becomes a source of some frustration. The collision detection is not always right, and the enemies, especially the bird in one of the later levels, has the difficulty set a little too high and, as a result, becomes wall denter territory for the joystick. There does also appear to be a couple of bugs which can spoil the gameplay. The idea is nice enough and was executed well on the Atari XL and XE systems, but even though the programmer of the conversion was the same as the original game, it has lost something key – playability and fairness. One for completists only and quite hard to find due to its obscurity.

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