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At last, the Pilot of the Future, Dan Dare and his trusty friend and batman, Digby (Bah Gum), fettle off into the frozen wastes of space looking for the Final Front Ear. Phil South found himself in hot pursuit.
'Tonight, Dan Dare, Pilot Of The Future, This Is Your Life...' So begins this rip roaring episode in the life of Dan Dare, the Pavarotti of the Space Operas. Dan Dare has been nabbed by that Irish blighter with the big red book, and finds himself facing his grimmest foes yet... his own friends and relations! But, in the midst of the satellite pictures, carrying messages from well wishers around the globe, a fearful face fills the TV screens...

GASP! THEN...
The Mekon has set a deadly trap. He's planted an atomic bomb in an asteroid and sent it speeding towards the Earth. He knows that Dan Dare will try to stop him, so he's built the bomb into a fortress inside the asteroid. Setting his jaw grimly, Dan Dare, and his faithful sidekick Digby (Bah Gum), speed off in the good Spaceship Anastasia to save the Earth...

MEANWHILE...
I say, what a ripping yarn! Playing the part of Dan, you must forge through the corridors and grav-lifts of the Mekon's fortress and activate the self-destruct system, blowing up the asteroid. There are five SDS keys distributed throughout the complex, and you must collect them one by one and take them to the self destruct mechanism. Sounds like a familiar arcade adventure scenario? Well, yes it does, but the game itself is far from ordinary.

LATER THAT DAY...
The graphics are a dazzling lightshow, with delightful elements of comicbook style, like the words 'Meanwhile...' in a box in the corner of the screen. The backdrops are highly detailed, and so three dimensional they practically leap off the screen at you. Dan himself is a little green sprite. The animation quality is v. Good indeedy, especially the bit when you don't move Dan for a bit. He looks out of the screen at you expectantly, then looks around to check no-one's creeping up on him. The gameplay is fast, tricky and challenging, with the worst enemy being the clock.

LATER THAT DAY...
With the weight of tradition behind it, this game should be a chart topper anyway, but the main reason will be that it's a thumping good game. Tally-ho, Digby.

Dan Dare lives dangerously. Most of the time he has no choice - heroic deeds are forced upon him because he's the bravest guy around. This time the nasty Mekon has decided to hold the world to ransom. Dan's just about to receive the highest accolade of all - an appearance on 'This is Your Life' - when the TV waves are unceremoniously taken over by the ugly visage of the Mekon. Earth must either submit to him as commander of the universe or accept the dire consequences...

The Mekon has hollowed out an asteroid, the size of a small planet, and has set it on a collision course with Earth. If Earth agrees to the Mekon's demands, the nasty asteroid will be detonated and the Earth rendered safe again. The only snag is that a green slimy alien will rule the world. Is the Mekon going to get his wicked way? Not if Dan Dare can help it!

Accompanied by his faithful friend Digby, Dan Dare sets off in his speedy spaceship, the Anastasia, and heads for the approaching asteroid. When they arrive on the Mekon's space projectile, Dan leaves Digby to guard the ship and starts to explore the asteroid. He has a mere two hours at his disposal to save the world from alien domination.

Dan soon realises his task is going to be far more difficult than he first thought. For one thing the asteroid is inhabited by Treens, alien, troopers guarding the Mekon's blackmail vehicle. Should a Treen catch up with Dan, the hero loses energy and might well be taken prisoner. Treens can also knock him out which, like doing a bit of 'porridge', loses Dan valuable time. Laser bolts fired by the automatic defence systems (and the Treens) are also bad for Dan's health and well-being. Fortunately Dan is not defenceless, and is equipped with a nifty laser gun which makes short shrift of any Treens that get in the way of a laser blast.

Dan finds himself in a subterranean world in which there are five levels. He has to find his way through a network of floors, travelling up and down in lifts, until he finds the self-destruct mechanism which will obliterate the asteroid before it has chance to collide with the Earth. To do this, however, five vital pieces of the mechanism have to be found and assembled in the control room - one part of the contraption has been hidden on each level. The lifts work sporadically, and indicator arrows reveal the directions of travel available.

Dan is a superfit fellow, capable of moving left and right, up and down, and he can jump over chasms and duck to avoid Treen laser bolts. To help him in his quest, a variety of objects lying around can be collected by jumping onto them, including bullets to boost his arsenal and pills to increase his energy.

As the game loads, the faces of the two protagonists - Dan Dare and the dreaded Mekon -are displayed on screen, and the action starts with the Anastasia speeding towards the asteroid. The game follows the flick screen format, with the status area below the action zone. The total score and the amount of time Dan has left in hours, minutes and seconds is displayed and two bars indicate the strength of Dan's arsenal and his energy level.

During play, screen captions in the style of the original comic strips pop on screen from time to time to explain what has happened to Dan - when he's knocked unconscious, for example. If Dan manages to thwart the Mekon's plan, the Anastasia is shown speeding away from the asteroid just before it explodes and then the end sequence displays the explosion itself.

Producer: Virgin
Price: £9.95
Author: The Gang of Five



Dan has just taken one of the five sections of the detonation device to the control room - and the screen captions give an update on the action

CRITICISM
"I must confess to not being an avid reader of the old Dan Dare comic strip, but of course like everyone else I've heard all about his dealings with the Mekon. This game defies all adjectives - to my mind, it's one of the best on the Spectrum. If you thought Ultimate had hit new boundaries on the Spectrum, then take a look at this. The graphics are amazing: I wond