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against these, the skimmer is armed with lasers, missiles, and AMMs (to destroy missiles fired by robot
Hunters). The skimmer also has a shield although its power is limited and if the shield is badly depleted or exhausted, the skimmer will take damage and some of its systems will fail. They can be repaired at any supply centre.
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is primarily an action game, it has some text-input sections when the skimmer docks or lands on the planet's surface. When this happens, the player can communicate with the skimmer using simple commands such as "HELP", "STATUS" or "SCORE" to get access to game information. If docked with a building,
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Any static defences (e.g. buildings) which are destroyed are permanently destroyed. Any mobile defences (Hunters, droids, etc.) are renewed when the player leaves a city; so cities are never fully cleared. Cities vary greatly in their defences; a few cities are almost undefended (just minefields),
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The cities of Tau Ceti III are extremely hostile places as they are full of robot defences. These consist of laser towers, Fortresses (which are essentially better-armoured Towers), Hunter ships (of which there are three types: Mark I, Mark II and Mark III), and slowly moving mines. To defend itself
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In order to shut down the central reactor, the main objective of the game, the player must first locate the forty pieces of the reactor cooling rods and assemble them into twenty complete rods which can then be inserted into the reactor to shut it down. The assembly of the rods is achieved by using
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The planet Tau Ceti III consists of several cities which themselves consist of clusters of buildings with their defensive laser towers and patrolling robot Hunter ships. The player's skimmer can dock with some of these buildings and find parts needed to help shut down the central reactor as well as
260:
It was all made up as I went along. I know a bit about astronomy, so I looked around for a likely location - because the way the routine works meant it couldn't be in space; you couldn't have the sun above because the line-draw routine wouldn't work, it would have to be on the surface of a planet.
291:
Humanity has spread out and colonised nearby star systems but a plague in 2150 led to the colonies being abandoned and left to their automated robotic maintenance systems. While several of these colonies have been successfully re-inhabited, the colony on the planet Tau Ceti III (orbiting the star
300:
smashed into the planet. A mission sent to Tau Ceti III in 2164 landed on the planet but broadcast a mayday message followed by silence. Experts decided that the planet's robots were running amok as a result of the meteorite impact. The only chance, it was decided, of successfully stopping the
336:
The skimmer is also fitted with a scanner in order to detect buildings or
Hunters not in its forward view or at a distance, and a compass to aid navigation. To cope with Tau Ceti III's frequent hours of darkness, the skimmer has an infra-red display mode and also carries a limited number of
310:
325:. As well as displaying these 3D graphics, Cooke's game engine renders them with simple shadows in order to simulate the day and night cycle of Tau Ceti III. These days are much shorter than Earth's consisting of one spin of the planet per hour with sixteen "spins" to a Cetian day.
34:
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defence systems without destroying the cities already there is to send a single pilot in an armoured Gal-Corp skimmer to the planet's surface with the task of shutting down the central reactor in Tau Ceti III's capital, Centralis.
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version of the game, when they announced that the final two reactor parts necessary could never be made to fit, and that it was impossible to complete the game which is contradicted on the C64-Wiki Tau Ceti page.
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And I thought 'Right, it can't be Earth because it looks a bit barren for Earth, it's got to be another planet.' So I looked round for nearby stars that might be inhabited and Tau Ceti had a nice-sounding name.
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I finally twigged that they must have used a table of line widths, and I thought about it a bit, then realised I could split it three quarters and a quarter, and then it would look like a shadow.
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I just went away and played with that for quite a long while and got it so that I had the sun in the sky and the shadow in the right place. And it sort of came from that, really.
246:...for a long while it had puzzled me how on earth they did the spheres. It obviously couldn't be a sprite because they didn't have enough memory to have that many sprites.
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As with some other Cooke games, the game also has an inbuilt note-taking system (accessed via the command "PAD") to take notes without using pen and paper.
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refuel and find vital information. The cities themselves can be travelled to by means of a "jump pad" which makes the long trips between them much quicker.
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up in 1985 as "an excellent game, combining several elements with stunning graphics" and gave it an overall rating of 94%. Another
Spectrum magazine,
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the command "RODS" which displays a screen showing found rod-pieces which can then be assembled in a manner similar to a simple
345:"LOOK" will display a picture of the inside of the building and "EQUIP" will allow access to anything useful in that building.
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578:, with its intergalactic scope and strategic depth. Viewed as a shoot 'em up with a purpose to the carnage,
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https://archive.org/stream/commodore-user-magazine-35/Commodore_User_Issue_35_1986_Aug#page/n71/mode/2up
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Having created the basics of a game engine, Cooke had to decide on a scenario for his new game:
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and its game engine came from Cooke attempting to work out how the spheres in the game
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a few cities are intensely defended (e.g. Centralis, where the main reactor is).
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magazine provoked controversy in their tips page for the
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Tau Ceti "Play to Win", Commodore User issue 35, page 73
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in 1987, with extra coding by Chris
Newcombe. A sequel,
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556:Response from the gaming media was very positive.
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712:Bourne, Chris (January 1986). "Tau Ceti review".
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760:Paddon, Lee (January 1986). "Tau Ceti review".
242:for the ZX Spectrum in 1985, had been created:
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74:, Chris Newcombe (128K Spectrum enhancements)
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269:by the works of the science-fiction writers
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200:. The world, set on Tau Ceti III orbiting
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210:, was released for the 128K Spectrum and
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674:"Preview of Tau Ceti in CRASH magazine"
582:has to be one of the all-time greats."
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802:https://www.c64-wiki.com/Tau_Ceti#Tips
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639:"Interview with Pete Cooke from 1987"
562:, a Spectrum gaming magazine, summed
265:Cooke was also inspired when writing
1126:Video games set on fictional planets
196:. It was designed and programmed by
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296:) has been uncontactable since a
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321:The gameworld is displayed in a
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660:"Pete Cooke | Retro Gamer"
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1:
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208:Tau Ceti: The Special Edition
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7:
1106:Science fiction video games
1101:Fiction set around Tau Ceti
829:"Jeux & stratégie HS 3"
749:(23): 86–87. December 1985.
698:(50): 14–15. December 1985.
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10:
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861:at SpectrumComputing.co.uk
804:Tau Ceti - C64-Wiki - Tips
696:Computer & Video Games
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277:, and the space-simulator
1111:Single-player video games
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815:"Jeux & stratégie 39"
779:(16): 18–19. August 1986.
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389:Computer and Video Games
323:3D view from the skimmer
220:, was released in 1986.
881:Review in Sinclair User
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224:Origins and development
731:(1): 32. January 1986.
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122:Atari ST, Amstrad, C64
946:The War of the Worlds
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176:and converted to the
168:published in 1985 by
614:Jeux & Stratégie
606:Jeux & Stratégie
337:short-lived flares.
775:"Tau Ceti review".
745:"Tau Ceti review".
727:"Tau Ceti review".
694:"Tau Ceti review".
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1086:Commodore 64 games
960:Bored of the Rings
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1131:ZX Spectrum games
1116:Telecomsoft games
1076:Amstrad PCW games
1071:Amstrad CPC games
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313:Atari ST gameplay
240:Firebird Software
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662:. 15 July 2014.
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729:Your Sinclair
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714:Sinclair User
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374:Review scores
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359:jigsaw puzzle
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61:CRL Group PLC
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1016:Frankenstein
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817:. June 1986.
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677:. Retrieved
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642:. Retrieved
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592:Commodore 64
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352:Reactor rods
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275:Isaac Asimov
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190:Commodore 64
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97:Commodore 64
57:Publisher(s)
45:Developer(s)
18:
967:Formula One
924:Video games
865:Preview in
764:(8601): 38.
529:Crash Smash
516:Publication
379:Publication
271:Larry Niven
212:Amstrad CPC
182:Amstrad PCW
178:Amstrad CPC
174:ZX Spectrum
105:ZX Spectrum
89:Amstrad PCW
85:Amstrad CPC
80:Platform(s)
67:Designer(s)
1060:Categories
1002:The Boggit
873:Review in
679:13 January
644:13 January
622:References
539:SU Classic
198:Pete Cooke
166:video game
142:simulation
72:Pete Cooke
1096:DOS games
917:CRL Group
852:MobyGames
716:(46): 26.
370:Reception
365:Reception
340:Although
974:Tau Ceti
858:Tau Ceti
847:Tau Ceti
580:Tau Ceti
564:Tau Ceti
549:Megagame
342:Tau Ceti
305:Gameplay
294:Tau Ceti
267:Tau Ceti
230:Tau Ceti
202:Tau Ceti
186:Atari ST
172:for the
161:Tau Ceti
133:Genre(s)
117:Spectrum
93:Atari ST
27:Tau Ceti
1044:Wolfman
995:Dracula
981:Academy
831:. 1986.
777:Zzap!64
599:Reviews
499:Zzap!64
217:Academy
148:Mode(s)
111:Release
932:Rescue
511:Awards
298:meteor
194:MS-DOS
192:, and
138:Action
127:MS-DOS
115:1985:
101:MS-DOS
988:Bugsy
875:Crash
867:Crash
747:Crash
617:HS #3
575:Elite
559:CRASH
525:Crash
519:Award
451:Crash
382:Score
280:Elite
235:Gyron
164:is a
125:1987:
120:1986:
681:2007
646:2007
444:9/10
287:Plot
273:and
850:at
609:#39
504:93%
456:94%
170:CRL
1062::
737:^
704:^
630:^
361:.
283:.
188:,
184:,
180:,
140:,
103:,
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648:.
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