Download Buck Rogers - Planet of Zoom

Planet of Zoom is a very fast forward king of game that tried to use the popularity of the comic book hero of the future Buck Rogers, but it really could have been just any other name, since there’s no real connection to Buck. 

As with many arcade/action games of the early eighties you can expect a lot of speed, shooting and many levels which get progressively harder. Seeing the game is set in the future it is only logical (or at least that was the stereotype of the day) that people will use flying machines instead of ground transport and that sooner or latter you will have to fight aliens (which in the pre-E.T. era just had to be violent). 

So this game is a perfect example. You fly around in a spaceship and shoot aliens. 

You mustn’t hit anything or else your ship explodes, you must clear a level in order to pass and in order to clear a level you either have to survive a distance (passing through a certain number of pillars – going around them won’t count) or kill a certain number of baddies. 

There’s a counter on the top of the screen that indicates your fuel level and the number of things you need to clear (pass or shoot). 

The controls are very simple (you need to use the num keys though and space), since you only move in four directions (up, down, left and right) and you get to shoot. 

So what to say? It was an addictive game that quickly fell into oblivion, because it didn’t stand out from the rest in any way, but it’s still a pleasant time waster you might want to try, if you fancy yet another shooter. 

A word of advice – play the game in DOSBox, because there you can adjust the speed of the game (by adjusting the cycles). This can make the game a bit easier or more challenging (it’s really up to you).

I couldn’t really determine the optimum speed, because there’s nothing to judge it by, but I guess it’s around 300 cycles (everything over 700 seems awfully fast, especially to begin with, and everything under 200 is painstakingly slow).