Description
One of the late Codemasters games released on the Master System in 1993, Cosmic Spacehead is the only point-and-click adventure game released on the system. It is in fact a conversion of Codemasters' game "Linus Spacehead", released for the NES using their expander device to avoid paying Nintendo's extortionate licencing fees. It seems they were all set to release unlicenced games for the SMS, having developed the hardware and figured out the system without an SDK, but Sega licenced the games and everyone was happy.
Anyway, I thought it was cool when I got it and I really like the game - it has some nice attention to detail and some impressive graphical feats. Unfortunately, most of them were because the original NES version had to deal with the system's limitations, so we get 3-colour sprites in the conversion which is kind of horrible. The use of patterns to give smoother gradient effects even with a relatively small number of tiles is very clever - note that Secret Tunnel only has 4 colours, for example.
Brief game guide
Cosmic Spacehead is an interplanetary tourist, and discovered the mythical planet Earth. However, he forgot to take any photos and nobody believes him. Lead him on a quest to get back to Earth and prove his story!
Controls:
- U/D/L/R = move cursor/Cosmic
- 1 = cycle verb
- 2 = select/walk/jump
Old Lino Town
Old Lino Town Post Office
Old Lino Town ➡ Cape Carnival
Cape Carnival
Old Lino Town ➡ The Wilderness
The Wilderness
The Wilderness ➡ The Cool Pool
The Cool Pool
The Cool Pool ➡ Dodgey City
Dodgey City
Old Lino Town ➡ Passport Control
Passport Control
Passport Control ➡ Formica City
Formica City
Formica City ➡ Cosmic Coast
Cosmic Coast
Cosmic Coast ➡ Foreign Soil
Foreign Soil
Passport Control ➡ The Riverbank
The Riverbank & Dodgey River Bank
Dodgey River Bank ➡ Dodgey City
Secret Tunnel
The Caves
Linograd ➡ The Caves
Linograd
Linograd ➡ No Man's Causeway
No Man's Causeway
No Man's Causeway ➡ Linoville
Linoville
Linoville ➡ Bus Depot
Bus Depot
Detroitica Bus Depot
Detroitica Bus Depot ➡ Factory Reception
Factory Reception
Production Line
The Workshop
Vork
Scrapyard
Scrapyard ➡ Factory Reception
Staff Room
Staff Room ➡ Car Lot
Car Lot
The Hub
No. 1 Weighs A Ton
No. 1
No. 2 Hard To Get Thru
No. 2
No. 3 I Can't See
No. 3
No. 4 No Floor
No. 4
No. 5 Ordinary Really
No. 5
No. 6 Gravity Mix
No. 6
