2010: The Graphic Action Game
2010: The Graphic Action Game is a puzzle/maze game with elements from 2010: Odyssey Two where the player must save the Discovery from crashing onto the surface of Jupiter's volcanic moon, Io. The player must choose one of about five circuits to work on in one of the ship's critical systems: Engine, Power, Communications, Life Support, and the HAL 9000. Successful power routing of a circuit makes each system slowly come on-line. It takes three powered circuits for minimum function, but four provides more leeway for success. On-Line engines and power can be activated for an orbital boost, but too long a burn will damage circuit components and cause the Discovery to slightly begin to fall faster into Io. HAL 9000 can power undamaged circuits you assign to him, although at a much slower pace than the player. Communications allow a powered HAL 9000 to inform you of success/failure at powering a circuit assigned to him. Life Support gives more protection against EMPs damaging powered circuits, which require repair and repowering.
At higher skill levels, moving power surges appear on the repair screen which, if touched when you are routing the power in a circuit, impedes your powering up of that circuit. If your power routing is at a circuit junction point, a power surge can zero in on that junction and fry said circuitry chip, which you have to repair in order to properly route the power again.
The game can end in one of two ways: By fully repairing each of the systems in order to reach enough velocity to escape Io's gravity, winning the game; or failing to reach escape velocity, thus crashing into Io and losing the game.
The principal designer was Coleco staffer Thomas Fulton. The HAL circuit portion of the game was designed by Rob Harris, a programmer at Coleco at the time.
The game features randomized circuit board patterns that are generated when the game is played. This makes it virtually impossible to memorize circuit patterns to win. HAL circuits are a logic puzzle instead of a pathway puzzle.
A poster of the Discovery One was included in the original packaging, with signatures of the design team appearing as engineers.
External links[edit]
- 2010: The Graphic Action Game can be played for free in the browser at the Internet Archive
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