Biohell for the Speccy became available yesterday, Friday 1 May, from author Andy Remic's website . It's a free download - look under Recent News - and in addition, the first person to send Remic the solution and password wins a copy of his first five books. The next three runners up get a copy of his latest novel Biohell, published by Solaris *.
The game, which we first blogged about here , is a "hardcore first-person epic graphical text adventure" where you play Franco Haggis, using "guns and bombs to progress across a nano-molecular zombie-infested city game-world". The download is 3.49MB, which includes the Biohell theme tune GREY by th3 m1ss1ng, and you'll need a Spectrum emulator to play it on - there are plenty on the net; SFX uses EmuZWin but Remic recommends SPIN from www.zxspin.co.uk .
"I know the game ain't as good as a new Joffa Smifff game," comments Andy Remic. "But it was all done as a bit of fun and any feedback and comments are appreciated!"
SFX's first attempt to play the game resulted in a score of zero after we attempted to kill our own Combat K comrade. Learn from us: this is not the way to complete the game.
Spectrum commentator Jonathan Cauldwell had similar experiences to us: "Within minutes of first loading this game up, I managed to die in two equally unpleasant, yet quite different ways," he writes. He describes the game world as "a bleak one. The future isn't bright, nor is it orange (actually, the Spectrum doesn't do orange, only red or yellow, but I digress.) The future is grim. The gritty reality portrayed in LS Lowry's paintings is nothing compared to the landscape of horror and despair painted by Remic's detailed descriptions."
"My next Spectrum project, if you can believe this," adds Remic, "is writing the Spectrum 48K version of Half-Life 2, by Valve Software. I am currently just negotiating the rights with Gabe Newell! Watch this space!"
*That's right, Biohell for the ZX Spectrum has an embedded competition! The first person to email the solution and final password to Andy Remic will receive copies of: Spiral, Quake and Warheah (published by Orbit Books) plus War Machine and Biohell (published by Solaris Books). The next three solution/password emails Andy Remic receives will get a copy of the novel Biohell. You'll need to include your name, address, age, solution (either text or word.doc) and password. The competition begins on 1 May. Andy Remic (not SFX!) is in charge. His dodgy decision is final, so get the details from www.andyremic.com .
