Magnetron (Brøderbund Software)

The Helios Exploration Starship is in for a surprise when it returns to Earth from deep space: alien invaders besiege the homeworld. 50 giant space fortresses orbit the planet, equipped with highly advanced Magnetic Force weapons. Humanity's only hope is the Helios' contingent of Photon Fighters. Magnetron is a top-down action game consisting of 50 levels, each representing one enemy fortress. A fortress consists of a number of platforms in space. The goal in each level is to destroy all gun emplacements of the current fortress. Movement of the player's Photon Fighter is inertia-based - a thrust into a direction and the ship will continue drifting that way unless reverse thrust is applied. However, the ship won't necessarily drift indefinitely - the enemy's Magnetic Force weapons influence the craft as well and might divert the course, slow the ship or pull it in unwanted directions. Each thrust of the engines deducts fuel from the tank. If fuel runs out, the ship is destroyed, but additional fuel can be picked up from tanks scattered over the platforms. The fighter can also employ an energy shield which prevents damage from enemy shots, but activating it drains fuel dramatically. The platforms feature different kinds of walls: contact with solid walls destroys the ship, some others can be destroyed by laser fire, and special elastic walls reflect shots - in some levels the enemy guns can only be destroyed by a targeted reflected shot. The game features a practice mode, which allows all but the last level of the game to be sampled. It also comes with a full level editor, allowing construction of complete sets of new levels. Walls, guns and fuel tanks can be freely placed, and the program also allows setting how the magnetic forces affect the player's ship. Levels can be saved to disk.