Published:
Summary
Nonterraqueous (1985) dropped you onto a hostile planet as a floating robot seeker with one job: find the master computer and destroy it. Easy, except the maze sprawled across more than 1,000 screens and practically everything wanted you dead. Lasers handled enemies, bombs cleared stubborn obstacles, and every scrape against the scenery drained your precious psyche. Released at budget price, it was hugely ambitious for the 8-bit era, turning exploration into a tense battle of memory, precision, and nerves. It was strange, sprawling, occasionally cruel, and remarkably absorbing.
What it does well
Huge map, clever resource use, distinctive atmosphere, strong value, and exploration that felt genuinely daunting on 8-bit hardware.
Where it falls short
Enormous maze, sparse guidance, punishing collisions, repetitive scenery, and navigation could become more exhausting than adventurous.
Verdict
An ambitious budget-era maze adventure that made sheer scale, careful navigation, and stubborn persistence its greatest weapons.
Nonterraqueous - version notes
Version-specific observations from the gameplay video. Tap a time to jump straight to that moment.
Amstrad (4 Beats)
- Split personality: SWOP pads transform the Seeker between operational modes, including a form capable of firing lasers.
- Psyche pressure: collisions drain the Seeker's Psyche, turning careful movement into a resource-management problem as well as navigation.
- Invented title: creator Stephen Curtis coined "Nonterraqueous" from non, terra and aqueous, meaning neither earth nor sea.
- Robot legacy: the CPC later received both Soul of a Robot and Into Oblivion from creator Stephen Curtis.
Commodore 64 (4 Beats)
- Cheap tune: David Dunn deliberately wrote a simple jingle because the music budget was extremely small.
- Bad recharge: some Psyche stations actually overload and destroy the Seeker, forcing players to remember which are safe.
- Rocket requirement: fuel must be found before the rocket can carry the Seeker past the otherwise impassable gas section.
- Standalone: the Spectrum and CPC received follow-ups, but none of the Nonterraqueous sequels reached the C64.
Spectrum (3 Beats)
- No second chances: touching a photon thruster causes instant death rather than merely draining Psyche.
- Original code: Stephen Curtis programmed the Spectrum original; the later C64 edition was converted by Kevin T. Green.
- 1004 rooms: its enormous labyrinth contains exactly 1,004 flip-screens spread across 42 vertical levels, all for just £1.99 on a 48k Spectrum.
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