Chimera (video game)

Chimera is an action-adventure video game written by Shahid Ahmad and published by Firebird in 1985.

Chimera
Publisher(s)Firebird
Designer(s)Shahid Ahmad
Composer(s)Rob Hubbard
Platform(s)Amstrad CPC, Atari 8-bit, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum
ReleaseSeptember 1985
Genre(s)Action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Plot

A huge spaceship threatens to destroy Earth. One person must board the vessel and activate its self-destruct mechanism to make it explode, saving Earth.

Gameplay
About to disable an electric fence with a spanner

In Chimera, the player moves through an isometric maze of 8 x 8 screens. The player must try to gain access to hidden or blocked areas of the spaceship, often searching for items in order to circumvent various obstacles. Once the obstacles are disabled, the player may use items to create a warhead and carry it to one of the "blue" rooms of the ship. Upon activation of all four warheads, the player must reach the green room in order to complete the quest.

The player must also attend to his water and food reserves, which run out faster when carrying something or when in a hot room. Both water and food can be found in the maze occasionally. If the reserves run out, or if the player tries to disable an obstacle with an incorrect item, the player dies and has lost the game.

Upon completion of the game, the player receives a key combination granting access to a bonus game in which the player has to shoot at a row of items (similar to Space Invaders). It has been said that the bonus game on the Atari 800 crashed due to a programming error. However, the game's author claimed[1] that the Atari 800 bonus game, A Different Kettle of Fish, was working when the software was shipped to the publisher, Firebird Software.

Reception
Reception
Review score
PublicationScore
Zzap!70%[2]

"Chimera is definitely graphically and sonically superior [...] but the gameplay is unfortunately [...] weak."
Gary Penn in Zzap! issue jan. 1986[2]

Legacy

Twenty-five years after the release of Chimera, original game designer Shahid Ahmad announced he was working on 25th Anniversary Edition of the game, entitled Chimera 2010, which was never completed.[3] On 3 September 2017, Ahmad announced VR spinoff Chimera Zero saying, "The only things Chimera Zero has in common with the 1985 original are the name, robots and an unashamedly sci-fi setting."[4]

gollark: Oh, I have this too.
gollark: Here's a helpful explanatory poster.
gollark: Did you know that the Moon is actually a hologram created by osmarks.tk orbital laser satellites?
gollark: Well, the controlling the world bit is pretty great.
gollark: Not sure, since I have not checked very hard.

References
  1. Chimera 2010 | The 25th Anniversary | Comment by Shahid Ahmad, September 8, 2011
  2. Chimera review in Zzap! issue 9, jan. 1986, p. 26, ISSN 0954-867X here
  3. Chimera 2010 | The 25th Anniversary – Retro Retried
  4. Ahmad, Shahid Kamal (2017-09-03). "I'm about to tell you the name of the VR project I've been working on for about a year in The ShaShed. Are you up for that?". @shahidkamal. Retrieved 2017-09-04.
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