Mickey's Space Adventure
After Swiss Family Robinson, this was the best game we had although it takes a little less skill as, unlike SFR, you are given the choices you can take on each screen (with SFR you can type anything on any screen).

We never finished it. I know I could now, but when I tried recently (having finally found a C64 emulator that works), the game began going birko on Mercury and lost the plot completely on Titan. It's annoying; I remember when we played it on a real C64 years ago (a lot slower, that was!) our disk would occasionally, without warning, spit the dummy so you could never know how far it would let you play.

One of my earliest memories is of my pulling the Commodore's plug on this game when my sister and Mum had just got up to a record new place. To say my sister was not pleased is an understatement.

Anyway. This game is a command-based RPG type thing, where are Mickey Mouse. You go exploring different planets in the Solar System in the search for pieces of a memory crystal belonging to an alien with the catchy name of XL30. This crystal contains the memories, the entire collective experience, of XL30's planet, and was broken into bits by thieves who have since been apprehended, but now the pieces must be retrieved.

It's also a somewhat educational game, although it's totally your choice how much info on the planets you want to be fed.

By far the most annoying part of this game (apart from a) the errors and b) the way each individual screen has to be coloured in when you access it) is the way you run out of air *really* quickly on each planet, thus having to abandon whatever you're doing to rush back to the ship, shut the doors, take off your spacesuit... Other than that it's kinda fun although for a slightly younger audience than my current one of 19 years (like at least 10 years younger)...

Tips

Here is a bit of a mini-walkthrough for the game, because I happen to take down little maps when playing games like this so that I don't get lost when I'm running out of air. It's a good habit my mum installed in me. ^_^.

The first and *most important tip* is this: don't just climb aboard the ship and fly away. You need to get Earth's crystal piece, and stock up on items from Mickey's house (to the west) (remember to open cupboards, check the doghouse, etc), or you won't be able to get any other crystal pieces.

One other general tip is that often you won't be able to do something right away until Mickey (who is not the brightest of animated mice) clicks on to what he should do. So when you know the crystal is nearby but you can't get to it, try doing whatever you can to get Mickey to catch on. For example, if you try to climb down into a chasm, it tells you it's not feasible - but then it allows you to use the rope, which it wouldn't before.

Button settings

(These are on the wall of the spaceship bedroom.)

Mercury - 1 orange
Venus - 1 blue
Earth - 1 orange 1 blue
Mars - 2 orange 1 blue
Jupiter - 1 orange 2 blue
Saturn - 2 orange 2 blue
Uranus - 3 orange 2 blue
Neptune - 2 orange 3 blue
Pluto - 3 orange 3 blue

Getting the crystals

Mercury - head north once and then west a couple of times. Trade the alien your sunnies for the crystal piece. Items needed: sunglasses.

Venus - head east until you reach the chasm. Look at it, use the rope, climb down the rope. Use the wrench to open the probe and find the crystal piece. Items needed: rope, wrench.

Earth - just head north of the spaceship and climb the tree.

Mars - go north a couple of times until you reach the volcano tube. The crystal piece is inside. Items needed: flashlight.

?? (Jupiter) - ???

Titan (Saturn) (you can't actually walk on the gas planets, just their main moon) - ???

?? (Uranus) - ???

Triton (Neptune) - go west twice and north to the back entrance of the ice castle. Use the crowbar to force an entrance. Follow the corridor south and then west. You can trade a scarf for the crystal piece. Items needed: crowbar, scarf.

Pluto - head south-west to where the alien Plutos are. You can trade Pluto's bone for the crystal piece. Items needed: bone.


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