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Timekeepers
 "You must not fail; the history of the world is in your hands. In a bid for the Zorganite to dominate the Galaxy the evil Emperor Zorg teleported eight nuclear devices into the earth's history. To save mankind the devices must be deactivated. This is a job for the Timekeepers!"
There are 14 of the little critters in this second title released by Vulcan Software to run in the Vulcan Portal. It's a strategy puzzle game that plays a little like Lemmings, although not quite so sophisticated, and the fourteen Timekeepers are just as committed to prematurely terminating their existence.
It's the Timekeepers job to save the world and it's your job to save the Timekeepers. In this first episode, Hieronymus World, there are 15 levels and when you press 'start' the platoon of Timekeepers are on the move. They are lined up at the bottom of the screen and if you don't immediately intervene to stop them, or set them on the right track, you could easily lose a handful. These opening seconds are critical and a few of the levels demand quick thinking (it will take a few tries) but this is the extent of the frantic action. It's not too hectic if you don't mind a casualty or two and you'll improve with practice. For the rest of the time you can just relax and concentrate on your strategy.
The world of Hieronymus scrolls up and down and it's a maze of pathways, impenetrable barriers, enclosures and death-defying lakes. And there's some hungry monsters waiting to gobble up reckless Timekeepers. On the plus side there's an eagle express (well it could be an eagle) to fly your charges limited distances and then there's you, of course, the expert navigator!
 Timekeepers is wholly mouse controlled. To help you with your job you have at your disposal a panel of action icons including arrows for instructing Platoon members to walk in any of four directions, a wait icon to slow them down if necessary, one for jumping obstacles, one for operating switches to raise bridges or open gates, and one named 'aggression' which dispenses with waiting monsters in a puff of smoke.
It's an amusing game, not too difficult, but some of the levels will get you thinking especially if you take the red herrings too seriously. You can direct Platoon members individually (sometimes you need to do this to remove various barriers) but you can also signpost a route for the team to follow one after the other.
Timekeepers was originally released for the Amiga in 1995. This port to the PC lets all of us play it and what a good idea. I played this first episode fairly quickly because once I started I was 'history'. I saved every single Timekeeper but you don't need to so long as you have eight survivors to end with so you can disarm the eight nuclear devices.
If you like this sort of challenge zap right on over to Vulcan Software and download it ... it's free. You'll also have to download the Vulcan Portal to play it but that's free too. The catch is that if you want to play the continuing episodes (I do) then it will cost you a few dollars. I'm not absolutely positive, but from the screenshots I suspect they might increase in difficulty.
To Download the Vulcan Portal and Timekeepers visit Vulcan Software.
Copyright © Rosemary Young 2002.
All rights reserved.
System Requirements:
Requires Vulcan Portal to be installed first.
Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, CE, ME
CPU 66Mhz
4Mb Memory
DirectX 7.0 (or higher)
Direct Sound compatible Sound Card
Direct Draw compatible Graphics Card (with 1Mb Video Memory)
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