Thrust is a conversion of the late Jeremy Smith‘s classic BBC/Commodore 64 gravity game, and it is a very good one.

The premise of the game is simple: find and remove a pod from the surface of various planets. To remove a pod you get up close to it and activate the tractor beam. The pod then attaches itself to your ship. Trouble is, in doing so you upset the balance of your ship and have to use your thrusters cleverly to remain in control. Which is easier said than done.

Each world has its own gravity, pulling you down. Some have weaker or reversed gravity. The ultimate aim is to avoid hitting the ground/sides with your ship. It explodes and you lose a life if that happens.

As if that wasn’t difficult enough – trying to outwit gravity – there are also enemy gun turrets and other traps that will kill you. Shoot them, before they shoot you, if you can.

The Atari ST is really good at conversions of older 8-bit games, and Thrust is a fine example of that. Alan Butcher did the coding and graphics and Rob Hubbard did the music. This conversion was published by Firebird in 1988 on its Silverbird 16-bit budget label. Thrust didn’t review too well at the time because critics generally wanted more from it. Ah well. What do critics know, eh?

More: Thrust on Wikipedia