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'Emergency ... Fleet of fifteen enemy Super-Dreadnoughts
Sighted ... Entering this Galactic Sector ... Now orbiting
our planet ... Draining planetary core of all mineral
resources ... Request assistance ... We are under attack
...'
Once
again our solar system is under the threat of extinction
from an unknown enemy and once again it's up to you
to prevent such a cataclysm. Uridium, the follow
up to Andrew Braybrook's previous offering Paradroid,
puts you in the pilot seat of the latest Manta class
Space Fighter and straight into the action with a press
of the fire button. Your objective is to destroy all
fifteen Dreadnoughts by disrupting their interstellar
power units, thus causing a chain reaction which eventually
vaporises them. However, things are not so easy (are
they ever?), since the enemy's defence systems must
be successfully avoided, or disposed of if the situation
arises, before you can land on the Dreadnought's master
runway, enter the engine room and prime the ship destruction
sequence.
Ship
3 (Copper) -- the Manta Class Space Fighter
under pressure from the Dreadnought's defence
system in the form of five aggressive alien
craft just passing overhead.
Each
Dreadnought is viewed through a horizontally scrolling
window which follows the movements of your craft left
and right. Aliens of varying description sneak in a
variety of different formations and should you prove
competent enough to completely annihilate a wave, a
bonus is awarded after successfully landing. Points
are basically acquired by simply killing the nasties,
but your score can be further increased by taking out
certain ground targets. Some scenery such as meteor
shields and communications aerials, cannot be shot though,
and must be flown around as they are too high to fly
over. The height of an object can be determined by the
length of the shadow it casts.
Ship
6 (Gold) -- retribution from the fighters is
fierce after cratering the Dreadnought's deck.
Homing
Mines are occasionally unleashed from the Dreadnaughts
flashing generator ports and some deft manoeuvring is
required to avoid them as they cannot be shot. Thankfully,
they self-destruct after four seconds.
Super
satisfaction and great effects as the
Dreadnought dissolves under you.
If
you skilfully survive a set number of alien attack waves,
the message 'Land Now' flashes up to indicate that you
should land on the runway at the far right end of the
ship. Failure to heed this warning results in a high
speed attack from even deadlier alien craft, which get
progressively meaner the longer you refuse to land.
On docking with the Dreadnought the display splits and
is replaced by a representation of the fuel rod chamber
-- a sort of futuristic fruit machine. Here you determine
the size of the bonus you are to receive for destroying
the battleship and this must be done within a short
time limit or a life is lost.
This
is the Fuel Rod Chamber, dubbed the
'futuristic fruit machine bit' where you determine
the bonus (at the moment 3,600) to be received
after destroying the Dreadnought.
As
the attacking alien battleships require specific metals
to be converted into energy for their interstellar power
units, they are identified accordingly. For example,
the first ship is called Zinc, the second Lead, the
third Copper and so on, right up to the fifteenth ship
which is called . . . Well that would be telling, wouldn't
it.
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