Rescue from Zylon - Cave, Blimp and Geologists

June 28, 2021, 01:23 Yaroslav Kolesnik

Not a particularly complex but fascinating game Rescue From Zylon was created in 1985 by Mark J. Moore exclusively for the Commodore 16 Plus/4. But now owners of an Enterprise computer can also enjoy it (or remember their younger days).

The gameplay is uncomplicated - by controlling a small airship, we need to rescue a group of geologists who have descended into a cave, which suddenly began to fill with water. But be careful, because the flying machine is quite fragile - any contact with the cave walls or acid drops damages the aerostat's shell. Fortunately, each picked up person will partially repair the damaged elements as a thank you. But the rising water (whose constantly rising level is displayed at the bottom of the screen) will not only kill people, but also instantly destroy your vehicle. Therefore, the rescue operation should start from the deepest point of the cave, to have time to get to all the geologists and then return to the surface. After a successful return the game will start again in a more complicated mode, in which the water will arrive faster and there will be more acid dripping from the ceiling.

What makes Rescue From Zylon stand out from other games is the physics of the airship's controls and inertia. It looks quite realistic and makes the game quite fascinating, despite its small volume and considerable complexity. Especially on the new platform the game has acquired new features: the glitter of precious crystals and the figures of geologists became multi-colored, and the music will brighten up the harsh conditions of the underworld.

The game, which you can download from our site, will run both on a 128-kilobyte machine and on a 64-kilobyte version of the computer, for which there are significantly fewer releases. You can control the flying machine as from the keyboard (the usual QAOP) and with any joystick.

Additional settings:

• F1 - next music track
• F2 - previous song
• F3 - on/off music
• F4 - to decrease the volume of the sound effects
• F5 - Increase the volume of the sound effects
• F6 - slow down water level rise speed (10% on the first level and 33% on the next levels)
• F7 - immortality (rising water will still be deadly)
• F8 - stop water level rise

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)