Starion is a classic space combat game, written by David Webb and published by Melbourne House in 1985.
What makes Starion interesting is that you have to solve simple anagrams (jumbled word puzzles) by collecting letters from destroyed enemy ships. You basically blast opponents, scoop up the letters they drop (by simply flying into them), and then solve the anagram to complete the level.
There’s a backstory about time travel, but – to be honest – the time travel element has no real effect on the game so is kinda irrelevant. All it does is help differentiate the 81 (9×9) sectors that are playable, and labelled as “Time Zones”.
This is an early, simple cockpit shooter with a moving starfield, wireframe graphics, and the aforementioned anagram game, and that’s about it. Oh, and there are fuel restrictions that act as a time limit.
Starion on the Spectrum is fast enough to be playable and is reasonably compelling. If you like space combat games and word puzzles, you’ll probably enjoy it.
More: Starion on World of Spectrum
The King of Grabs 
In the early summer of 1985 when the C64 had just had its version of Elite released and the Spectrum’s was nowehere to be seen, Starion was the game that kept the dream alive.
It was nothing like Elite, of course (it played more like an episode of Countdown), but compared to the clunky C64 version of Elite, Starion’s graphics were fast and incredibly smooth (which I found out much later was down to the lack of hidden line removal – Elite had to draw all its ships twice).
One very minor thing that Starion took from Elite and improved upon was the hangar screen, which if the game was left alone would cycle through and rotate all the 3D objects in the game. I sometimes would load the game just to see it. In that sense it was my first screensaver!
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I spent many hours playing Starion as a kid. The gameplay was simple, but I loved the mix of 3D graphics and word puzzles. An ingenious mix.
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