Developed by Epyx and published by Atari Corporation, Gates of Zendocon is a scrolling shooter that was released exclusively for the Atari Lynx in 1989. The game was in fact a launch title for the colour handheld, along with California Games, Blue Lightning, and Electrocop.

The aim of the game is to search for the evil spider, Zendocon, who has trapped you inside a web of fifty universes that are connected by a series of transporter gates and alien bases. You must survive attacks by hostile lifeforms and rescue alien slaves from Zendocon‘s minions. If you’re able to free the captured aliens they will ally to you, follow you, and aid you with unusual alien weaponry.

Your spaceship has a nose laser which can fire continuously if you hold down the fire button – at least until it overheats (in which case you have to allow it to cool down before it’ll operate again). Your ship also drops bombs downward when the laser is fired.

Your ship can take numerous hits before it’s destroyed. After a couple of hits the ship will lose its nose laser. A couple more hits and it’ll lose its engine. After that: one more hit will result in its destruction, but if you can make it to a gate, and the subsequent alien base, before that happens you can land and transfer to an undamaged ship, before continuing on.

When you find a transporter gate you can either fly into it, or go around it and continue on – hoping that you’ll be able to make it to the next gate. But why would you want to do that? Well, each gate leads to a different universe, and only by travelling through the right gates in the right order will you manage to reach Zendocon for that final showdown. This is a search mission after all, so if you keep going around in circles and seeing the same enemies and places, you’ll occasionally have to try something different to break the cycle.

Gates of Zendocon is one of those games that initially doesn’t look like much, but is in fact well-designed, playable, and quite clever in its construction. Finding the right path through the maze of universes is not particularly easy (why would it be?), and can be frustrating at times, but the game is varied and does have a few surprises. There’s also a password system that allows you to start the game from a specific alien base.

The game can be played on easy or hard difficulties and is a serious challenge to complete. On the Lynx it’s another must-own title for real hardware collectors. For everyone else it’s available to buy on Steam in an emulated, modified format. Like the other Lynx shooter available on Steam – Zarlor Mercenary – it’s still worth playing today.

More: Gates of Zendocon on Wikipedia
Steam: Gates of Zendocon on Steam