Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper

Trantor: The Last Stormtrooper is a platform-based Shoot'Em Up written by Nick Bruty of Probe Software and published by U. S. Gold in 1987. It was written for the ZX Spectrum and ported to the Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and MSX. A DOS version was released by KeyPunch Software.

Trantor is an example of what happens when a frustrated computer artist writes a game. Bruty is a graphics guy who, in the '80s, was used to working in tight constraints - besides limited graphics, home micros of the time had small memories, and a typical game's mechanics and map didn't leave a lot of room for the graphics.

When he came to design Trantor, Bruty turned the tables by keeping the game complexity to a minimum and prioritising the art.

The game's story involves an undercover mercenary unit on a mission to prevent an interplanetary nuclear war by putting down a rebellion. Unfortunately, their ship is destroyed by the enemy, along with the entire troop apart from Trantor - who now has only minutes to complete their mission.

Trantor begins with an animated introduction in which the ship descends through a tunnel and lands. A figure emerges, beckons to others in the ship, then hits the deck as the ship disintegrates.

Gameplay consists of running through a maze of horizontal tunnels, looking for code letters and flamethrower fuel while incinerating enemies. Trantor himself is an unusually large and detailed sprite. The object of the game is to enter the completed code into a terminal, then return to the start before the timer runs out.

Trantor was well received, not least by owners of colour-clash-prone computers who appreciated the way it made use of the palette instead of copping out with a monochrome playing area. Most reviews raved about the graphics, though some pointed out the gameplay was lacking.

Not to be confused with the planet in Asimov's Foundation series, which inspired the name.

• Awesome Art: The real point of the game.
• Black and Gray Morality: According to an advert, an ancient empire's outer regions are becoming dissatisfied with the status quo while Technology Marches On. The government's response is to quietly send a shipload of "outlaw mercenaries" to quash the dissent. Trantor is selected as leader because of his brutal streak and rebellious nature. Who are the bad guys here?
  • Sounds like he might have joined La Résistance if they hadn't killed all his comrades. Oh, and if he wasn't on an Explosive Leash.
• Die or Fly: Trantor's only hope is to complete his near-impossible mission alone. And if he fails, he explodes.
• Explosive Leash: Trantor has enough microscopic explosives implanted under his skin to turn him into mist if he fails. Presumably the same applied to the rest of the troop, given how little was left of their ship.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: The flamethrower.
• Nintendo Hard: The game uses short time limits to keep the pressure on, in order to balance out the simple gameplay.

If I had more resources to make the exploration more interesting I would have eased the difficulty down... I didn't mean it to be quite so difficult. —Nick Bruty

• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: Trantor's men before they get blown up.
• Rule of Cool: The name (see Shout-Out below).
• Shout-Out: The author chose the name partly as a nod to Isaac Asimov, and partly because it sounded cool.^[1] Which is itself a tribute to Asimov's taste in names.
  • Some of the tunnels and enemies are clearly inspired by the Alien franchise.
• Smashing Hallway Traps of Doom: One of the many ways to deplete Trantor's energy.
• Starfish Aliens: Some of the enemies.
• Take That: At the end of the game, the player is shown the percentage of the game completed and a short comment on their performance. The comment for 9% is "Is that you, Fergus?", referring to Probe co-founder Fergus McGovern.
• Timed Mission: The timer resets every time a code letter is found, making it effectively a series of small, timed missions - and making the time pressure constant.