This is a game where the player travels around various star systems in the style of Elite, exploring the planets and capturing and researching the flora and fauna for the Encyclopaedia Galactica. The player has to land his craft, get out on foot and collect anything of interest. Some creatures are hostile so it's best to sedate them first, or use a trap. Traps can be left on a planet and returned to later, when they have been activated.

One month in to development with two months left, there are 21 planets so far with many more planned, and hundreds of screens. There are barren planets, volcanoes, blizzards, ancient and long-dead civilisations, watery worlds, underground caverns and plenty of other surprises. I may get as many as 1000 screens in to the final game, although designing all these planets takes a lot of time. Just call me Slartibartfast!

There's a shop to purchase extra supplies - traps, tranquiliser darts, fuel, cages, ship upgrades etc, and a minigame where the player has to decode the DNA of each species he collects.

So... anyone up for doing a conversion...?

I noticed your message on Oldschool Gaming a while back. The game looks very good so far! It will be interesting to see how well it plays when it's done.

I'm already committed to my own project at the moment. Maybe someone else fancies having a go at bringing it to the Acorn machines. Are you going to be using more than 48K?

Just 48K for the game, although the 128K version will have music. I daren't think how big this game could be if it were to use the full 128K!

Here you go, Encyclopaedia Galactica for the Spectrum 48K/128K. Best played on a 128K or +2 machine for the AY music and to see the full encyclopaedia articles whenever you successfully research a new alien plant or animal.

Dozens of worlds to explore, countless screens, underwater worlds, caverns, ice planets, volcanoes, lightning, gas giants, long-dead alien civilisations, alien tombs to loot, ship upgrades, police, artefact traders, loan sharks, asteroid belts... the list goes on. You can even buy a plankton filter and discover microscopic lifeforms in alien oceans. Each time you discover a new species you get paid by the eponymous tome and that means you can purchase new items to aid your quest.

Everything gets moved around from one game to the next so you never quite know what to expect. This is a game which could take some time to complete.

Keys are 2W90M with Z to teleport and H to quit.

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