Written by Paul W. Reynolds and published for the ZX Spectrum by Abbex Electronics in 1984, Krakatoa – also known as “Escape From Krakatoa” – is a scrolling action game with multiple objectives in which you fly a helicopter in order to rescue people from the infamous erupting volcano.

This is a game that I have vague (but fond) memories of playing when I was teenager, and playing it now is equal parts joy and frustration.

Krakatoa is unfortunately hampered by a keyboard layout that is archaic at best and unusable at worst, and cannot be redefined under normal circumstances*, and it makes playing the game more difficult than it should be. Which is a pity because the game is involving and fun and is a neat sandbox in which you must shoot down attacking missiles and try to lower your rescue rope onto little red men who need your help, then return them safely to your base.

Krakatoa is chaotic and difficult, but is well-presented, playable and something different on the Spectrum. You fly a helicopter over a stretch of ocean, toward an island with a volcano and some houses built next to it (which was great planning…); when the volcano erupts the people come out of their houses and require rescuing. You wind your rescue rope down and try to collect the men onto it. You can actually carry up to five men at once on the rope, but good luck trying to get that many onto it…

As mentioned earlier, what look like cruise missiles (or are they aircraft?) fly in from the right and target your helicopter, so you have to try to shoot them down with your forward-firing machine gun. A [yellow] submarine also fires torpedoes at a tanker in the bay, and if it manages to strike the ship its crew will start jumping into the water. You can drop depth charges downward to try to destroy the submarine, while at the same time trying to rescue the souls in the water.

Progress reports flash up on-screen after every attack wave has subsided and these tell you how damaged the tanker has. If it becomes non-operational it will sink and that will mean ‘game over’. And you only have one life per game so if you’re struck by a missile or crash into the ground that will also mean ‘game over’.

If your chopper is hit by debris from the volcano it will become damaged, but at least won’t be destroyed instantly. And when that damage becomes critical your information display will start flickering and your helicopter will start doing strange things, like turning around by itself. You can return to the helipad for repairs, then continue your rescue.

*= I did find some pokes that change the keyboard controls, so I turned them into a “.pok” file that worked with Spectaculator (the emulator I was using), and while it did work, it also seemed to create a few problems in the game, so I’d advise caution if you’re going to use them. Why the game’s original author thought that his key layout was anything other than stupid, I don’t know. Why he didn’t include any joystick options, I don’t know. And why he didn’t allow players to redefine the keys, I don’t know. The stupid keyboard layout pretty much ruins a great little game. I’d love to see a hack that properly fixes this, or even a remake of Krakatoa, because the underlying idea is an excellent one.

More: Krakatoa on World of Spectrum