Game Review: Nonterraqueous (Commodore 64, Mastertronic)

Nonterraqueous has an ambitious enough plot, with the remote planet that you are on, with the evil computer using the population as pawns in a chess game.  A seeker has been built from parts that have been stolen over time, and they are ready to send the seeker on its mission.  It needs to locate the central computer to destroy it, and this is across forty-two levels of depth in three sections – the caves, semi-machinery and the all-machinery, each represented by a different backdrop.  You have psyche energy which you lose by contacting enemies, and if you hit the photon thruster or the acidic raindrops, the latter without suitable protection, your quest is over.

Modus Operandi

The seeker has two modes –  one is defenceless, where you do not fire any bullets, but have a little helicopter type rotor which protects you from the acidic raindrops, and the other mode is sphere mode where you can fire.  Each mode does have its usage, and you can use the rooms marked SWAP to change over with a press of the space bar.  The space bar also does pick up ay objects from a room, such as a bomb but also the fuel, which you will need for the rocket ship that you will encounter and give it enough to pass through the gas room which you will encounter later in the game.

Poor Presentation

Initial impressions are not so promising.  The loading screen is okay, but the BASIC character set title screen, with the title spelt wrong (a V is in place of a U in the game’s title) does look a little sloppy.  There is at least a reasonable David Dunn tune which then plays throughout the game – although you can press the M key to toggle this on and off during play should you wish.  Once you start, the maze is flick screen and you will soon zoom into the first problem of the photon thrusters – these are basically purple bars that go up and down the screen and you need to time your run to get past.  Hit any part of the purple, and it is instant death and game over.  Granted, you will pass these easy enough after the first go or two. but a removal of say a number of psyche energy units would have made the game more playable here.

Multicoloured Swap Shop

A few screens in and you will find a room marked SWAP.  This is where you can press space to toggle modes between defenceless and armed seekers, and you can swap anywhere within that swap room. Toggling can be a little too responsive at times, but switching to the defenceless mode does protect you from the acid raindrops later.  You will also soon locate a screen which has a bomb for you to collect with the space bar.  To utilise that, you will need to find a room where the barrier is red and goes down the middle of the screen, and cannot be passed.  Now here is where things get a little tricky.

Bomb the Bass

Unfortunately, the instructions do not mention that you need to use the D key to drop the bomb (space does not work.)  You also need to ensure that when you drop the bomb, no enemies are directly underneath you, or else the bomb hits them instead of the ground, it explodes too close to you, and instant death and game over as a result.  Once you have utilised the bomb correctly, you will be back on the screen and the impassable barrier has been replaced by two of the purple photon thrusters, so get past those carefully to progress onward.  You will then find the rocket ship, however that is not going anywhere until you find the fuel, so careful moving up several levels to find that fuel is the order of the day.

Watch Us Rack the Mic.  Psyche!

You can top up your psyche at some of the static objects that protrude from the ground during play.  However, a considerable number of these have bad psyche which means your seeker is overloaded, and it is instant death and game over once again.  Mapping out which ones are good and not so good (the one next to the first swap screen for example is no good) helps you avoid the same mistake again, so well worth noting them.  Similarly, there may be ways that you can use a bomb for that you do not really need to, so think if there is an alternative route to get past if you can.

It’s a Gas

If you do locate the fuel and head back to the rocket ship, this takes you off and you head all the way up past the gas room and get dropped off at level 00 – and from here you need to find a suitable way back down to the level where the computer is.  This still is not easy, and although you may have some bombs to assist getting past the barriers, the threat of instant death still exists and you do need to be careful.  Going all guns blazing will not work and you may be best utilising the defenceless mode from the swap room on certain screens, although in practice you can get past those acid raindrops if you time your run well, rendering the swap possibly less meaningful than it potentially could be.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics in Nonterraqueous are reasonable, with the seeker craft having some nice animation when in defenceless mode, and the enemies being reasonably drawn.  The three types of backdrops can get a bit repetitive, but they do mark out the way to go well, and the large explosion set of circles when you set off the bomb is simple, but nicely done.  Certainly, some of the single colour sprites are there to slow you down and get in the way, but look reasonable enough.  The sound consists of around a fifty-five second main theme which loops, and a small jingle when you see the game over screen detailing what happened the seeker.  The sound effects are also just functional but may work better with the music off.

Final Thoughts

Nonterraqueous tries to provide a large sizeable challenge, with sections to discover, and a mission to complete include setting off bombs, finding the fuel for the rocket to get up to the higher levels, and locating the computer to be destroyed.  The instant death resulting in frustration when you hit the photon thrusters or indeed the acidic raindrops (if not in defenceless mode) can feel quite punishing to have to restart once again.  With practice and mapping out, you can get further, but unfortunately by that time you may have already had one go too many and tried to top up your psyche in a bad place too.  I think if the game had been tweaked slightly so that you lost several psyche units with colliding with certain objects, that would have opened the game more and increased the playability somewhat.

A Lack of Sequels

One final thing to note: both the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC got a sequel game, called Soul of a Robot – and that game also had a conversion for the MSX as well. There was also an additional game for the Amstrad CPC called Into Oblivion too, all written by the game’s original author, Stephen Curtis.  None of those made it over to the Commodore 64.

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