Amaurote

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Amaurote
Developer(s)	Binary Design Ltd
Publisher(s)	Mastertronic
Designer(s)	John Pickford
Platform(s)	Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, C64, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Electronika BK 0011M
Release	1987
Genre(s)	Action
Mode(s)	Single player

Amaurote is a British video game for 8-bit computer systems that was released in 1987 by Mastertronic on their Mastertronic Added Dimension label. The music for the game was written by David Whittaker.

Plot[]

From the game's instructions:

The city of Amaurote has been invaded by huge, aggressive insects who have built colonies in each of the city's 25 sectors. As the only uninjured army officer left after the invasion (that'll teach you for hiding!) the job falls to you to destroy all the insect colonies.

Gameplay[]

An insect chases the Arachnus

The player controls an "Arachnus 4", an armoured fighting-machine that moves on four legs. The player must first select a sector to play in via a map screen and then control the Arachnus as it wanders an isometric (top-down in the Commodore 64 version) view of the cityscape attacking marauding insects and searching for the insect queen using a scanner. The Arachnus attacks by launching bouncing bombs. It can only launch one at a time so if a bomb misses its intended target the player will have to wait until it hits the scenery or bounces against the fence of the play area before firing again. Once the queen has been located, the player can radio-in a "supa-bomb" which can be used to destroy the queen. The player can also radio-in other supplies such as additional bombs and even ask to be pulled out of the combat zone. Extra weaponry costs the player "dosh", the in-game currency.

Reception[]

The game was favourably reviewed by Crash magazine who said it was graphically impressive, well designed and fun to play. It was given a 92% overall rating.^[1]

Zzap!64 were less impressed by the Commodore 64 version which was criticised for dull gameplay and programming bugs. It was rated 39% overall.^[2]

Trivia[]

The origin of the city name Amaurote derives from "Utopia" by Sir Thomas More (1478–1535). In the second book, "Of the Cities, and namely of Amaurote", the following description is given

AS FOR their cities, he that knoweth one of them, knoweth them all: they be all so like one to another, as farforth as the nature of the place permitteth. I will describe therefore to you one or other of them, for it skilleth not greatly which: but which rather than Amaurote? Of them all this is the worthiest and of most dignity.

There was also a huge music bug in the 128K ZX Spectrum +2 version of the game,^[3] in that there was no music at all in the game (either as intro music or in-game music), despite the credits "Music By" in the scrolling text after the game had loaded from cassette.

References[]

External links[]

• Amaurote at SpectrumComputing.co.uk

• Amaurote at Atari Mania