Parachute (ZX Spectrum)
by Miguel Ángel Tejedor (aka Miguetelo)

Parachute is a conversion of the game of the same name released by Homevision for the Atari 2600 video games console back in 1983. It was Miguetelo's entry into the ZX-DEV’17 Conversions competition.

You are a paratrooper and your mission is to descend from the sky, evading numerous patrols of enemy helicopters, aeroplanes, birds, balloons and other obstacles, to reach your base on the ground. Sometimes you must pass through several screens in the air in order to reach the ground level base screen. If you bump into an obstacle your parachute splits and you plummet to your death. Fortunately you are somehow related to felines and therefore get nine lives to play with. The title screen gives the usual options of keyboard (QAOP), Kempston joystick or Sinclair joystick, but there is no redefine keys option.

Once the game starts a small aeroplane flies along the top of the screen and your paratrooper leaps out of it. He floats down the screen and will do so at a greater speed should you press the descend button. This action uses up some of your precious limited fuel supply so you must use it sparingly, at the right moments. Fortunately You can collect extra fuel canisters on the way down. This fuel mechanic is not in the original game.

The developer has added platforms, which you can land and rest on, as well as mazes to the screens in this conversion which really add to the game’s depth. It feels like a completely different game to the original at this point and is a lot more complex with more varied screens, which gives them more of an identity. There’s great variety with enemies consisting of floating bubbles, guided missiles, balloons, patrolling soldiers and even spikes to contend with.

There are thirty-five screens in all. The initial screen has a base at the bottom of it but later it's two, three or four screens in the air before you reach a screen with the base on. Sometimes a soldier at the base level needs to be avoided. Landing on him highlights another, slightly annoying, difference between this and the original in that when you die, rather than just flashing and carrying on down you are taken back to the top of the first screen and have to perform the jump all over again.

The original game reminded me a little of crossing the road in Frogger, only backwards. More often than not the hazards you needed to avoid were almost changed together, rather like Frogger traffic, with one convenient gap in the chain that you could take advantage of and squeeze through. This conversion is similar but on later levels it reminds me more of Lunar Lander with it's maze like caverns that you need to negotiate. It's quite a difficult game, not because it speeds up and adds more enemies like the original, but because more complex screens are thrown at the player. I'm not sure this conversion does even speed up. The fuel mechanic balances out the difficulty level very well.

The graphics are quite pretty and colourful and everything is recognisable as to what it is supposed to be. The original was famous for being one of the few Atari 2600 games to contain in game music and this conversion doesn't disappoint. There are four excellent AY tunes for the in game music which alternate for each level. The title screen music has a fifth excellent tune.

There is a slight flaw in the scoring system as you score points just for flying. There is no time limit and fuel is not used when pressing the ascend key so you could just clock up your score indefinitely. However, the challenge of the game is to see the next screen until eventually you get to the 35th, and this need is so strong that I figure there won't be anyone playing this game solely to achieve a high score.

I liked the additional maze like screens which did not feature in the original, the in game music which is nothing short of fantastic and a fuel mechanic which works well in balancing out the games difficulty level. I wasn't so keen on having to start again from the top screen when you die and also scoring points just for being in mid air was a bit weird.

All in all it's a highly enjoyable conversion which is a massive improvement over the Atari version, whilst retaining the simple playability of its inspiration, and giving us some awesome AY chiptune music to listen to as we hurtle towards the planets surface.