Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper is a video game for the ZX Spectrum

ZX Spectrum

The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...

, Commodore 64

Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...

, MSX

MSX

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...

, Amstrad CPC

Amstrad CPC

The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...

 and Atari ST

Atari ST

The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...

 released by Go! (a label of U.S. Gold

U.S. Gold

U.S. Gold was a British video game publisher and developer from the early 1980s through the mid-1990s, producing numerous titles on a variety of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit platforms.-History:...

) in 1987

1987 in video gaming

-Notable releases:* January 14, Nintendo releases Zelda II: The Adventure of Link in January for the Famicom Disk System in Japan only. The game would go unreleased in America for nearly two years afterwards.* February 20, Konami releases Contra...

. It was produced by Probe Software (the team consisted of David Quinn, Nick Bruty

Nick Bruty

Nicholas Anthony Bruty or Nick Bruty is a British video game designer and entrepreneur.He was raised and educated in Livingston, Scotland. He made his first step into video games when he was 15, working for company SoftStone with his friend David Quinn. Bruty had done some projects for SoftStone...

 and David Perry). It was released in Spain (as "Trantor") by Erbe Software. The game is a mix between shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up

Shoot 'em up is a subgenre of shooter video games. In a shoot 'em up, the player controls a lone character, often in a spacecraft or aircraft, shooting large numbers of enemies while dodging their attacks. The genre in turn encompasses various types or subgenres and critics differ on exactly what...

 and a platform game

Platform game

A platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps...

, but it was mostly known for its large and well-animated sprites.

Gameplay

The player controls the titular stormtrooper who is the only survivor of the destruction of his spaceship (hence the title). Gameplay revolves around exploring the play-area and collecting code-letters. The play-area consists of several different floors which can be explored freely via connecting lifts

Elevator

An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

. However, Trantor is up against a very strict time limit.

The levels are infested by various aliens and small flying robots which sap Trantor's strength if he touches them. Fortunately, Trantor is armed with a flamethrower

Flamethrower

A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...

 with which to destroy these pests. Unfortunately, fuel for this is limited although he can re-fill this at fuel-points located on many of the floors.

Whenever Trantor finds a code-letter, his timer countdown is reset and then counts down again until he finds another letter. For this reason, much of the gameplay is a race-against-time.

There are also lockers scattered around the floors which contain pick-ups to assist Trantor. These include hamburgers (restore strength) and clocks (reseting the time, as finding a code letter would).

The game ends when Trantor's energy runs out or if the timer reaches zero.

Opening sequence

Trantor was unusual for the time in featuring an animated opening-sequence on loading shown before the main options screen. This shows Trantor's ship (with animated radars) slowly dropping down a shaft before landing. The title character then emerges and is seen to beckon to others to join him before the ship suddenly disintegrates leaving him alone.

Critical response

Trantor was generally received with positive reviews, with Your Sinclair

Your Sinclair

Your Sinclair or YS as it was commonly abbreviated, was a British computer magazine for the Sinclair range of computers, mainly the ZX Spectrum.-History:...

giving it 9/10 and calling it "Wonderful entertainment and worth much more than the asking price"http://www.ysrnry.co.uk/articles/trantor.htm. CRASH, on the other hand, claimed that the "excellent presentation and graphics conceal shallow gameplay" giving it an overall of 68%.http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=Crash/Issue46/Pages/Crash4600116.jpg