Invasion Earth: 2038

Stardate: 4:35 am, June 5th, 2038. Location: River Thames, Westminster, London. Arthur Buckett (43) arrives at the scene during his early-morning jog. He spots what looks like a whale surfacing close to the south bank of the river. That would have been an incredible sight in itself, but what he saw next, he will never forget. 'Hatches opened in the top of it and these nasty alien monsters came flooding out. So scary they looked, all armoured up, with heads like sharks. They all disappeared into County Hall, then a minute later they came back out shouting at each other and ran across Westminster Bridge to storm parliament. That's when the shooting began. I got out of there sharpish, I can tell you!' And that's how the Xarq invasion of 2038 began...

This is an illustrated text adventure game, forming a sequel to Otis Travels In Space, though it's not at all necessary to have played that one first. Just know that this won't be your character's first adventure in space! All you have to do this time is save Planet Earth from a vicious race of aliens, starting from the comfort of your own kitchen...

The game expects simple verb-noun style input, such as:

GET BOOK

CLIMB LADDER

GIVE BOOK  (no need to say to whom)

ASK (about) BOOK    ("about" is optional here)

TALK (to) PEEK   ("to" optional) - it helps to keep TALKing to people.

EXAMINE BOOK  (use "X" as an abbreviation for examine)

OPEN DOOR

SAVE  /  LOAD

HELP     (for a little help)

You get the idea. The parser is sophisticated enough to handle more complex sentences if that's your kind of thing,  such as:

GET ALL EXCEPT CHAIR THEN GO SOUTH THEN DROP NEWSPAPER AND BOOK

Game notes: 

In contrast to the previous game, this is more linear in design, the puzzles are more straightforward and there is more of a sense of moving along with the plot. You can't get killed and can't find yourself stuck in a dead end.

The game was first written using Adventuron (browser version), then exported to DAAD Ready format and compiled for Spectrum Next. The export was also converted to run on the Sinclair QL  (Mode 4 and SMSQ/E). 

Credits:

Major thanks to David Walton for extensive beta testing of the nascent game and for sprucing up a number of the images too!