Interactive Science Fiction for the Mac

Tom Thompson

Here's a neat interactive CD-ROM science fiction game called Iron Helix. It requires you to survive by your wits rather than mindlessly shooting things. An interstellar warship, armed with a planet-busting bomb, experiences a combination biologic accident/computer glitch during a war-game simulation. This incident kills the crew, but the ship's computer finds a new target for the bomb: an inhabited world.

You, on the only ship in the vicinity, must use three unarmed probes to explore the vessel and find clues that let you shut the ship down. However, the warship's own defensive system--a blaster-packing robot that shoots first and asks questions later--is out to get you. You must explore the empty decks of the ship and listen to the logs of crew me mbers for crucial information as you avoid the robot. Created by Drew Studios, Iron Helix features sumptuous graphics, QuickTime movies that display crew logs, and catchy sound tracks. The CD-ROM has been carefully organized so that the game plays on 68020-based Macs and single-speed CD-ROM drives.

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Illustration: Iron Helix displays a map of your location as you probe the interstellar warship.