Magnetron - Information

Magnetron was played out across a number of different space stations. Demon droids had taken control of eight armed stations in orbit around the planet Quartech. The player controlled a Meknotech droid called KLP2, who was beamed aboard the first station (Magnetron) in an attempt to shut down each of its four reactors. This process would have to be repeated for each station in turn.

The stability of each reactor was dependent on the combined charge of its fuel rods (+) and its inhibitors (-). By switching the charges around, KLP2 could either shut down or destroy each reactor. By steering KLP2 over a terminal and pressing fire, the player could see KLP2's current attributes, the state of the reactors and so on.

Every satellite was occupied by demon droids. KLP2 had limited weaponry, but he could shoot at demon droids and they would shoot back. Alternatively, KLP2 could 'grapple' with each droid in a brave attempt to overcome it and assimilate some of its components, thus upgrading KLP2 in the process. To do this, the player would press fire and enter 'grapple' mode (indicated on the main game control panel). He would then collide with a demon droid to enter the grappling phase. A new screen would pop up where the grapple would be decided against the clock. The player was faced by a 3x3 grid of nine icons, with three of each type. The idea was to rapidly move the icons so that the same icons lined up together on the grid (three rows of three icon types) before the timer ran out.

Each time the player managed to upgrade, KLP2 effectively added an extra life to his attributes. If he lost power, then he reverted to his previous chassis (at the location within the station where the previous grapple had been won) and continued on his mission. Once all the lives were used up, it was game over. Arrow tiles on the floor would force KLP2 into that particular direction, and moving in the opposite direction over those tiles would put a strain on KLP2's power source.

The demon droids all had designations, so the player could see if the droid was worth grappling with or not. When KLP2 upgraded, his security level could increase and more information (about the components - drive, power source, weapon and finally device) would become available via the terminals dotted around each station.

Setting a reactor to shut down or overload involved locating the reactor, moving over it and pressing fire. The player would then have to add or subtract values from the fuel rods and inhibitors until its status changed from 'stable' to 'shut down' or 'overload'. Each terminal would show the status of each of the four reactors on the station.

Magnetron utilised isometric 3D landscapes of ramps and terminals. The player moved KLP2 across and up or down the ramps to enter the next screen. It looked quite similar to it's predecessor "Quazatron" (written by the same programmer and published by Hewson a few years previously), and some of the gameplay was very reminisce.

Magnetron was published in early 1988 after the infamous courtcase between Telecomsoft and Hewson was settled out of court. It was available for Sinclair Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and the Commodore 64.