When I was a very young lad I was a proud owner of the Atari 800XL computer with a dominant 64kb of raw RAM. With this powerful computer come powerful games like Star Raiders, Miner 2049er, Rescue on Fractalus and so forth. However I still had a wish-list of games that I was hoping one day I would play it. One of them is this game Caverns of Mars. I saw the advertisements and screenshots and wishing I could play this game as it has rave reviews. Well after 25 years I finally got a copy; boot it up and boy it was one of the crappiest games I have ever played.

According to the game box Caverns of Mars is an exciting, fast-moving adventure game for the Atari 400/800 home computer. The game plot is simple. The player must maneuver his one-man fighter down into the depths of Mars, activate the timer of a fusion bomb, and escape before the bomb goes off. Sounds exciting? It gets better. Depending on the level of difficulty, up to five caves will be explored and to finish the game there are five missions.

I won't bore you the details about refueling, enemies and whatever else. Seriously this game really sucks. I must add though that the level system is a blunt rip-off from Star Raiders. Granted that the graphics are great and the game is written in machine language as most games for that period are written in basic hence slowly executed.

If you want to experience a 1981 game that is graphically good and perform well (as in a timely matter) then look no further. However I will warn you that boredom will kick in rather quickly. There is really nothing else to say.