Villordsutch reviews Deep Core Raider on the ZX Spectrum…
One of my favourite all time computer games of old was Thrust created by the late Jeremy Smith. I spent many a wet break time at school on a massive BBC Micro battling both inertia and gravity to steal the orbs from numerous caves. So when I caught a glimpse of Deep Core Raider it instantly sang out to me as a possible game in the same class of the mighty giant.
Created by Paul Jenkinson for the ZX Spectrum, we find ourselves in a small spacecraft where our main mission is descend in the bowels of the planet and steal the numerous pieces of unattended ore plus other whatnots, whilst attempting to steer clear of gun sentries and mobile guards. Not only this but you also have a serious fuel problem going on – the more fuel you burn the quicker your game will end unless you find more.
Deep Core Raider is a game with some good qualities. It looks rather splendid, and it keeps you coming back for that “one more go!”, however it does have a few minor tweaks that could possibly tighten up the game. For example you can happily cruise through the numerous caves and levels, only picking up fuel, completely bypassing the ore if you wanted to do so. Granted your score takes a serious hit and you’re defeating the purpose of the game – perhaps it would have been better to have a toll at the level end, where to pass you needed “X” amount of ore.
Along with this your weaponry doesn’t feel very effective as in the beginning you can’t do damage to the sentry guns and when a destructible enemy does arrive they just seem to keep spawning. Also you can accidentally destroy yourself with your own gun, which feels a wee bit odd.
One strange bug I found in a play through is with the mine-shaped gates which blocks numerous routes in Level 2 – these can sometimes take a couple of hits to destroy or in one case over a minute and a half’s worth of constant hits!
These issues aside Deep Core Raider does – as said – make you keep coming back, it contains the spark of longevity that all classic ZX Spectrum games had built into its foundations and I expect I’ll be playing it for a long time too.
Deep Core Raider can be download for the ZX Spectrum or your emulator here.
Rating: 7/10
Originally published June 24, 2016. Updated June 30, 2023.
