Written by Charles Goodwin and published by Virgin Games in 1984, Strangeloop is a maze-based action adventure for the ZX Spectrum with a surreal, futuristic vibe to it.

The storyline, for what it’s worth, is set inside a large robot factory that has been taken over by aliens. Your job is to retake control of the factory and kick the aliens out. To do that, you must find various objects and use them in the right places, although there are few clues as to where those right places might be.

Pretty much every room in the factory has hazardous “Swarf” moving around inside it. These sharp objects will puncture your protective suit, if you make contact with any of it, although you can pick up patches to mitigate this. You can shoot the Swarf, but it is small and hard to target. It will also come back – unless you shoot every piece of Swarf in a room; in which case it will stay gone for good.

Near the starting point of the game, you’ll also find a “Jet Cycle” that you can ride to speed up your exploration. This futuristic jet bike needs constant refuelling, though, and you can find fuel canisters littered around the factory.

Back in 1984, Strangeloop was considered quite innovative, even though – playing the game now – the actual objective(s) are vague, and the gameplay is fiddly. Strangeloop even has a save (to cassette tape) function, although it’s unlikely many people used it.

Overall, Strangeloop isn’t a bad game. It’s not a ‘classic’ by any means, and hasn’t aged particularly well, but it’s maybe still worth playing today, if you enjoy this type of game and haven’t seen it before.

Strangeloop was also released for the C64, Amstrad CPC and MSX.

More: Strangeloop on World of Spectrum