Glass Walkthrough, ZX Spectrum
46A walkthrough of the ZX Spectrum game, Glass. From the recording originally sent to http://www.rzxarchive.co.uk/ . Some notes from the submitter:
Glass
RZX by Jim Waterman, 10-11 August 2016
Recorded using Spectaculator 8.0 - playing time 1:55:55
If I had to nominate an all-time favourite Spectrum programmer on graphics alone, it would be Paul Hargreaves. Tantalus is his finest work with brightly-coloured and incredibly detailed scenery liberally splattered all over the game; Glass is a close second, as most of what caught my eye - even as far back as 1987 when I began my foray into the wonderful world of the ZX Spectrum - is confined to the detailed surroundings to the playing area, at least until we arrive at one of the three alien cities that need to be nuked into oblivion. And let's not forget Paul's other work - Terminus was in a very similar vein to Tantalus, Strontium Dog: The Killing at least brightens up the empty, black-background playing area with glowing and flashing and highly detailed edges... but we don't talk about Borzak.
Glass (or Ground Level Alien Strike Simulator, like a proto-Codemasters) features a large number of stages to be cleared (126 of them!), designed to test the reflexes and accuracy of a potential starfighter pilot. The game is pretty much stacked up against the player from the start, as there are only three shields available which steadily tick downwards on the meter as they are damaged, and they don't last long with what the game has in store for us. And these are:
(1) "Bouncing aliens" shooting stages (x38)
There are only two alien types in these, which are exquisitely detailed especially when viewed up close - but they have a variety of different movement patterns, some of which are a lot easier to keep in the gun sights than others. Some will die on the first hit, others may take up to 16, and if they get too close, that's one hit to the shields.
(2) "Rising aliens" shooting stages (x33)
Move the sights left and right to see aliens rise from the horizon like a futuristic game of Whack-a-mole. When they're at their highest they'll hurl a ball at you for one point of shield damage, then start to sink again. They can only be shot when near their highest point, and there's usually several in the arena at the same time, so you may lose some shields without seeing what's hit you. On the upside, sometimes there will be a large score bonus for no discernible reason. (I called it a "cosmic burp" when I was a nipper. You'll see what I mean.)
(3) "Walking aliens" shooting stages (x16)
All the aliens are on screen and walk, slowly, horizontally, lobbing a barrage of damaging balls at you. Some will roll, some will slide, some will bounce, but all will run your shields down fast. And the gun doesn't seem to be very effective on them, they only score 10 points each, so just keep scrolling one way and let them go...
(4) "Long ship" shooting stages (x20)
Usually, a very, very long spaceship crawls slowly past the screen. Shoot the radar dishes from the top of the ship for 10 points each, and the worms underneath for 20. Each one of these that escapes your fire causes one point of damage to the shields, and sometimes they are deviously arranged, alternating between dish and worms. Some ships move faster than others; beware of the stages with mini-ships that go rocketing past at warp speed!
(5) "Dodge the pillars" stages (x16)
No shooting here, just fast flight through a plain covered in coloured pillars. Press up to accelerate, down to brake, left and right do what you'd expect, fire does nothing, just avoid those pillars. The faster you fly, the faster your score increases. This is easily the hardest of the stages, it can cause a Game Over in seconds (though I've managed many flawless flights through them thanks to Rollback!) and as if that wasn't enough, eight of these stages throw lightning into the mix for extra distraction.
(6) Alien citadels (x3)
Sit back and watch the fun as an extraordinarily detailed city complex is reduced to its component pixels.
This game has infinite continues; with each Game Over you're given a rating based on your score, and even with *extreme* abuse of the Rollback facility it took me three continues to get through the whole game! At least I was given a proper rank each time, which I'm fairly sure requires 20,000 points to be scored. Less than that and you'll only qualify as an Alien Zoo Keeper, Earth Politician, Tax Inspector, Galactic Dustman, Cosmic Cook, Terminal Wally, 3rd Rate Zombie, or... gasp... Commodore Owner! (This game was also ported to the Amstrad CPC and MSX, but not the C64 - and the insult remains the same over all three formats!)
BLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAP BLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAP
CHOOOING CHOOOING CHOOOING CHOOOING CHOOOING CHOOOING CHOOOING CHOOOING
BLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAP BLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAPBLAP
Enjoy having that noise going through your head for the next three weeks.