Rasterscan
Released: 1987
Genre: Adventure
Format reviewed: ZX Spectrum
Publisher: Mastertronic
Developer: Binary Design Ltd
Every Monday – to help earn my pocket money – I’d go food shopping with my dad. Really, it was a good excuse to peruse the budget game section in Tesco and sneak a Mastertronic or Firebird title (alongside a King Size Mars Bar) in the trolley.
One such title was Mastertronic’s Rasterscan. An odd little game in which you controlled a droid (or basketball? beach-ball?) called MSB. MSB’s task was to repair the good ship Rasterscan before it crashed into a nearby star. Unfortunately, MSB itself was also broken and without help, was only able to repair toasters. Whilst accurately browned toast is obviously HIGHLY important, an accurately browned spaceship is definitely something to avoid.
This is where you realise that you’ve stepped into quite an infuriating game. The logic was well, rather illogical to say the least and most of the time you just ended up floating around, marvelling at the wonderful digitised graphics whilst simultaneously pulling out your hair.
Then again, the game had a jaunty theme tune, the previously mentioned graphics were a joy to behold with colour used to good effect… what more could you want for £1.99? Definitely worth suffering Tesco for!