AGH Atari 8-Bit Computer Review: PROTECTOR II by Synapse While the classic gaming era was not wrought by an endless number of sequels (Madden '94/95/96, anyone?), 1982 had its fair share of them. And as hard as it may be to believe, this one is the sequel to Synapse's classic, Protector. The idea here is to save the people (all 20 of them) of a great city from being kidnapped by vicious aliens who, besides fishing, also enjoy throwing a human or two into a volcano. As the city's last defender, you must pick up the citizens of the beseiged city and carry them to the relative safety of the city of New Hope. Then you have to pick them up again and carry them to a secure mountain fortress, which for some inexplicable reason is full of enemy cannons and missile bases. To keep you from being bored outside the fortress, there is some native wildlife which enjoys flying around and munching up the occasional fighter as well as laser cannons and missile bases on the ground. Protector II has some nice features like being able to decide how many ships you want to start with. You get to choose a set of three or five. You also get to pick the starting level of difficulty, ranging from one to six. The game also has some very nice special effects, such as gravity and the way your man parachutes to safety when you get hit. However, it can't be helped from noticing some of the deficiencies in this otherwise good game. For example, you can't shoot the laser cannons and the missiles can only be destroyed when they turn red, which happens about as often as Haley's Comet is visible from Earth. The game would have been much, much better if there was more opposition. With this sequel, Synapse didn't generate the same cult following as the first but that doesn't mean it's a bad game. But considering how awesome the original was, we can't help but to be slightly let down by this effort. Title Protector II Publisher Synapse System Atari 400/800/XL/XE Graphics 7 Sound 6 Gameplay 6 Overall 6 Reviewer Keita Iida