Set on an uninhabited spaceship, Chimera is an isometric adventure/puzzle game where you control a robot* that must destroy the ship before it crashes into Earth. The game was written by Shahid Ahmad and published by Firebird in 1985. The music is by Rob Hubbard.

*= The player character looks like a robot, but does in fact require food and water to survive, so there’s a bit of a contradiction going on in the story, as far as who or what the player actually is.

To destroy the ship you need to use various items found in the maze of corridors to form warheads and then take them to four blue rooms where they’ll be activated. When all four warheads have been placed you then need to make your way to the green room at the top of the ship to escape.

Doing this is not straightforward, though, as you have limited food and water supplies that are constantly dwindling and must be topped-up relatively frequently. Also, there are radiators in some rooms that will cause your water to run out even quicker if you’re exposed to them. And, if that wasn’t enough, your food will run down quicker when you’re carrying a formed warhead or other important items. If either your food or water run out, the game will end. You can top-up both food and water by finding and collecting either bread or cups that are scattered around the ship.

Chimera is a somewhat interesting game, but figuring out what to do is frustrating initially, and completing the game is a fairly tall order. It’s a game that really requires a map to make progress in because the maze is quite complex and some important items are hidden behind walls. Instant death – by doing the wrong thing at the wrong time – is common, and there’s also occasional slowdown in some rooms. What is quite innovative (for the time) is the sampled speech (recorded by the author himself), which has a memorable “aaaaaah!” when you die. Which you will do often.

The best way to play Chimera now is in an emulator, with quicksaves, and using a walkthrough.

More: Chimera on Wikipedia
More: Chimera on CSDb