TRAVEL THROUGH TIME VOL 1: NORTHERN LIGHTS

Author:

Zosya Entertainment

Memory: 128K

Released: 2021

Price: Free to download and physical release available from zosya.net — £14.99

There’s a certain expectation when you see the name Zosya on a Spectrum game. With their reputation of producing very fine Spectrum games over the last few years — with the likes of Valley of Rains, Drift and Bonnie and Clyde already under their belts — this one has been touted as their most ambitious yet. The game follows the Larsson family as you control Sven, the young car enthusiast looking to pursue his dream of street racing. His uncle Bjorn is not so keen and warns him against it. But Sven being the young adventurous type, decides to say ‘thanks, but no thanks’ and sees about starting his racing dream. The game begins in the 1950s. As you progress, you will follow Sven and his family through the 60s, 70s and 80s with the cars featured appropriate to the decade. With such a long story, this is going to be a game you’ll have to plough many hours into. Let’s hope it’s a good one then, eh?

CRITICISM

• The game boasts not only impressive graphics and gameplay, but also a number of finely animated cutscenes — the first being at the start of the game as Sven takes to his garage and heads off in his car to start his story. The first level sees you test the waters as it were, as you get to grips with your vehicle and the road, easing you in the game’s controls.

After getting to the first checkpoint, it’s time for you to start your first-time trial and test your driving skills. A quick tip here — watch out for that damned train! Sven then starts his first race and soon gets introduced to other characters that will feature throughout the game. There’s a possible love interest for young Sven straight away (he’s a goodlooking chap) though his concentration is purely on his car — at first at least. The gameplay? Well, what we have here is quite extraordinary. The details in the car and scenery are pretty

stunning. It may seem only a tiny thing, but noticing the exhaust fumes pumping out of the back of the vehicle before you start driving shows the level of detail Zosya has added to the game. The shadows on the cars as they move under bridges and other obstacles is extremely well done.

More impressive features follow in the shape of the scenery you see slowly slipping into sight when you drive downhill and the shading of each car as it turns left and right. You can reach some impressive speeds too, which the game handles very well, with no sign of any slowdown. Driving controls are tight, and I was reminded a lot of Chase HQ here (which can only be a good thing), including some of the FX when screeching around corners and, inevitably, CRASHing into the odd tree car or road sign.

Due to my ineptitude, I haven’t quite gotten as far as I’d like in terms of

moving to the next decade (give me a couple of weeks!), but even with only having played the first part of this game, I can see that this is one of the most impressive looking games you’ll see for the machine. The combination of time trials, races, story and marvellous cutscenes make this a fantastic example of a Spectrum game done amazingly well and again; it’s astounding that Zosya has managed to cram this much in and got so much out of the Speccy’s 128K of memory. Witchcraft? Possibly, but what I want to know is… when is volume two coming out?

Paul Davies

CRITICISM

• I recall being smitten with the jaw-dropping feats of Drift by the same development team. It was tight, technical and outstandingly impressive. TTT follows in the footsteps of this marvel and presents us with another piece of programming wizardry. It’s a very visual and wellcrafted racer with RPG elements that give a new flavour to the genre. With its back-story and challenging races, this is no shallow arcade racer. The collision detection (vital in a competent racer) is tighter than a Sumo wrestler in spandex, and the sensation of speed is an incredible accomplishment for such a humble 8-bit micro.

This has to go down as one of the most technical accomplishments that the Spectrum has ever produced — and it’s darn good fun too!

Gordon King