VIRUS

16K ZX81 - 2010

Never did like office parties...

Christmas eve, and the staff at Macrobiology Industries Limited were having the usual office party, with all the usual hi-jinx and tears, but something very unusual was happening in the biohazard containment fridge. The predicted pandemic had never occurred, and so the fridge was full of unused swine-flu vaccines, but that night it jostled for space with the secretary's cucumber sandwiches and the boss's - sorry, not his, a friends - Viagra supply, all stored there for safe keeping until the party really got started. But the disco lights overloaded the generator, the fuses blew, the fridge shut off, and the staff all went their separate ways home to sleep off the excesses.

January 2nd, happy new year! The security guard, first on site that morning, was slowly working his way around the offices and labs, tripping the fuse boxes back to life. He shook his head, bemused by the broken hinges on the doors, but the smashed containment fridge, and mucus-like stains on the walls and floor scared him enough to grab his SHARPS pistol, as strange things moved just out of sight...

I started my second game for the Zeddy, following the good reception received by Domin8tr1s, with high aspirations. Having a character-mapped display I felt the machine should be capable of a fast scrolling game, and it was.

MicroMart - "Virus is a very playable and extremely polished top-down shoot'em up, making the most of the machine's limitations. Put simply this is Speccy-quality gaming on a ZX81" - 9/10

RetroGamer - "The phrase 'tense scrolling action on the ZX81' isn't one we
often use in these reviews, but that's exactly what Virus is." - 85%