Dark Planet
The Starship Orion IV has encountered a severe ion storm while exploring the star system Rega. The main engines have been damaged and the Viridian Crystals, source of the ships power, are almost depleted. Sensors show the only planet to contain Viridian Crystals is the Dark Planet, a small world entirely covered with ominous black clouds. You must explore the planet and recover five crystals to re-energise the engines, but beware — who knows what dangers lie hidden beneath the swirling clouds of the Dark Planet . . .
Transcribed from the cassette inlay.1985 · Copyright 1985 on the disk loading screen; not in the 1984 adverts, and has its own 1986 catalogue sheet
Play it
The disk image is under “From the archive” below. It runs in VICE, which is free for Windows, macOS and Linux, or on a THEC64. Two-word commands: GET CRYSTAL, BEAM DOWN, GO NORTH, DIG, MOVE BOULDER, DROP PHASER, HELP. The hint sheet below has the solutions.
How it plays
Commands the manual gives as examples: GET CRYSTAL, BEAM DOWN, GO NORTH, DIG, MOVE BOULDER, DROP PHASER, HELP.
Viridian crystals are indicated with an asterisk, e.g. *CRYSTAL*. Enter R to restart from the beginning.
Screens
From the archive
- Cassette inlay the original blurb and instructions, as printed
- Hint sheet (PDF) scanned from the sheet Mountain Valley sold separately
- Disk image (.d64) 171 KB — for VICE or any C64 emulator
