Space taxi

Game mode

Single player , multiplayer
( 4 players in a row)

control

joystick

information

Popular classic

In Space Taxi is a computer game for the Commodore 64 . It was programmed by John F. Kutcher and released by Muse Software in 1984 .

action

It is an action game in which you have to control a flying taxi. In 24 different levels, which stand for the 24 hours of a day, you have to transport passengers from one place to the next. The difficulty is to steer the taxi past the numerous and partly movable obstacles without touching them. If you collide with an object or if the taxi runs out of fuel, you lose a life.

There are a number of platforms in each level. At random, a customer appears on one of the platforms who wants to be taken to another platform (" Hey taxi! "). For this purpose you have to maneuver the taxi to the platform with the customer and extend the landing gear shortly before touching down. After the passenger has boarded, they have to be flown to the desired platform (e.g. " Pad one please "). The sooner you can do this, the higher the tip will be. With the money you can refill the taxi with fuel at gas stations, which are available in many levels.

After a certain number of served passengers, the next guest wishes to be flown out of the level (" Up please "). A lock at the top of the screen opens, through which you get to the next level or the next hour of the day. In the 24-hour game mode, the game starts at 1:00 in the morning with the simplest level called "Short'n Sweet" and ends at 24:00 in the evening with the difficult level "On the Move" , in which all platforms move back and forth move here. However, you can also limit yourself to the levels of a certain level of difficulty or complete the 24 levels in random order.

Each level has its own theme and its own obstacles. In one level you have to avoid snowflakes, in the next radio stations interfere with the control of the taxi and in the third you have to fight off the attraction of a black hole.

Thanks to its voice output , which was revolutionary at the time , the game soon achieved cult status. The spoken sentences include a. "Hey taxi!" , "Thanks" and "Up please" . These are also spoken in different voices, so that you had the feeling of dealing with different passengers.

Levels

Space Taxi contains 24 regular levels, which are listed as follows: In addition to the name, the number of platforms (pads) is also given, an F stands for a tank platform. Special features refer to special obstacles or changed physical properties.

No.	Surname	Pads	particularities
Morning shift
1	Short -n- sweet	1
2	The Beach	3
3	Skyscrapers	5
4th	Taxi trainer	9 + F
5	Beanstalk	1-9	As the beanstalk grows, the number of pads increases
6th	Taxi pong	3	Ping pong ball
7th	Teleports	5	Teleporters lead through locked rooms
8th	Puzzler	5	Various switches open barriers
Day shift
9	Crossfire	7th	Gunfire
10	Shooting Stars	5 + F	Stars are falling
11	Magnets	5	Magnets pull taxi upwards
12	Black Hole	5	Black hole attraction to the center
13	Turbo-charged taxi	9 + F	Greater thrust of the taxi
14th	Space mines	7 + F	Impassable area between points
15th	Electroids	1	Through gaps in electromagnet. Rays fly
16	Blizzard	3	Falling snowflakes, wind from changing directions
Night Shift
17th	Interference	7 + F	Control by radio station disturbed
18th	Taxi Maze	1	maze
19th	The Switch	5	Control directions reversed
20th	Almost break	7 + F	High speed required to pass the barrier
21st	rebound	5	Change of direction of movement by projectiles
22nd	Shift-o-Rama	7th	Obstacle made up of layers with opposing gaps
23	Lasers	3	Laser barriers are only open for a short time
24	On the move	7 + F	Pads move and block passages

Secret menu

If you manage to complete all 24 levels in one go, you get to a secret 25th level. In this “secret screen” you are greeted with “Welcome to… MUSEWORLD” and three obstacles appear on the three platforms that relate to other games from Muse Software . There is an ambulance for Rescue Squad (also John F. Kutcher , 1983), a soldier with a swastika for Castle Wolfenstein ( Silias S. Warner , 1983) and a shooting robot for RobotWar (Silias S. Warner, 1981 on the Apple II published).

The real secret is at the bottom of the screen: “Eat the pi e until a " fire " glows, then go up until it stops, touch a star and you'll see the Secret Menu !!! ”. The text passages shown in bold here are highlighted in the game by a different color and give the key to open the "secret menu": To do this, you first have to go to the introduction screen (press the joystick down on the start screen) and the buttons on which the refer to the highlighted text passages of the “Secret Menu”, press: First the π-key (there was on the C64 , use the combination Shift + Delete with emulators) until the word “fire” in the bottom line changes color (“… until a "fire" glows ... ”). Then the ↑ key (this does not mean the cursor key, use Remove for emulators) until the color is black again and finally the * key.

The “Secret Menu” now appears with the following options:

Create your own demo

Turn off sprite collisions
manual level selection in random order (random shift)
Information about the programmer.

Ports and successors

A port of Space Taxi for the Amiga was published by Andreas Spreen . However, this version had different levels and differed from the original in some other ways. Elmsoft brought out a version for the Amstrad CPC in 1987 .

With Space Taxi 2 , Twilight Games released an official, authorized successor in 2004.

In addition, due to the game's cult status, an unmanageable number of unofficial clones have appeared and are still appearing, the game principle of which is based on that of the original. Examples of such clones can be found on Egyptian Space Taxi or Space Pizza , where Space Taxi variants were developed as Flash online games.

So far, the remake Sketch Taxi has appeared on smartphones on Windows Phone , which initially includes the first eight levels. Sketch Taxi was published by Vernal Equinox in 2012 . The name of the game is reminiscent of the sketch style of the graphics, which is lovingly and cartoon-like implemented. The game offers new features that - once unlocked - levels can be freely selected as well as several achievements that the player can achieve. Otherwise, Sketch Taxi sticks to the original both in terms of level design and gameplay.

Web links

Individual evidence

[1] ttp://www.kewbee.de/games/index.html

[2] ttp://neotrx.com/

[3] ttp://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=6bddd3ed-b29c-483a-8682-9ea1cc64ad51