Nether Earth
Nether Earth is a rather obscure game. You won't find it in many game databases. It was available only for a few 8-bit platforms of the time, first and foremost for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it is remembered best. Even well-informed later reviewers have thought that it was never ported to any other platform. It was, but more about this later. First let's take a look at what this game was all about, and nothing explains it better than the contemporary review by Gwyn Hughes (Your Sinclair, Issue 16, April 1987):
Mighty battle machines roll out of high production factories, across a barren strip of land against a ruthless, alien enemy. Could this be the face of wars of the future? More importantly, could this be the face of wargames of the future?
Nether Earth is something new in the field of strategy. It combines a sophisticated test of resources and supply management with the challenge of battle tactics—then crowns it all with a simple menu system and impressive 3D graphics. Those maps of Waterloo will never seem the same again.
There's enough here to satisfy the hard core thinker, though it may never replace the historically accurate simulation in the traditionalist's heart. But there's also enough fast moving fun to tempt anybody who's previously been put off by the apparently arcane complexities of doing battle on a Spectrum.
The plot is simple. Our enemy is the Insignian invasion force, which is marching in from the East. Meanwhile, at the Western end of the battlezone lies our Warbase, where the battle robots are assembled.
But a Warbase is of little use unless it's supplied with the raw components, so the first thing you have to do is send your initial batch of robots out to secure neutral factories. These'll be fairly slow and basic droids, but as the supply points roll in you'll be able to assemble more complex models, replacing the clumsy bi-pod movement with anti-grav manoeuvrability and short range cannons with devastating missiles. Fluffy dice and go faster stripes are not available though.
Giving commands is simple. You skim around the area in a small craft that can also be used for reconnaissance, landing on either the Warbase heli-pad or a robot's head. This opens up a menu, which in turn may lead to a sub-menu, and you can either issue orders or take direct command of an android, while it wears you like a toupee.
The eventual aim is to thin down the enemy's defences, while containing its advance, then nuke the Insignian Warbases. For this you'll need twenty supply points for the warhead alone. These things don't come cheap, you know!
Nether Earth blends the relentless drive of American Football with a management game, great graphics and some useful sound effects to warn you of battles. There's literally nothing quite like it.
Yes, there was nothing quite like it, back then, but there would be: Dune II, Command & Conquer, Warcraft, for essentially Nether Earth was a real-time strategy long before this term became a household word amongst gamers. But while Nether Earth was celebrated in the Sinclair community as the unique and innovative game that it certainly was, this is not necessarily true for the other platforms it was ported to. In part this may be due to graphics. Given the restrictions of the platform, the ZX graphics were excellent. They were nearly clash-free, and the few clashes that do occur were hardly noticeable. There are few games that can boast that; another one is the for other reasons on the ZX unpopular Traz.
The C64 designers stuck to the isometric
(at the time, called 3D
) graphics, which was probably not a
good idea and was not recieved well. They used only very few colors,
all of them drab and ugly, and with little contrast. On the ZX, you
immediately know what you are looking at, ob the C64, you don't.
Still the venom with which the editors of Zzap!64 treated this game is a bit astonishing:
I can't find anything worthwhile about Nether Earth—it's an inconsequential piece of binary garbage that should never have seen the light of day. (Julian Rignall)
It's a visual nightmare, consisting of large bland areas of colour with no detail. The gameplay is slow and fiddly, and any interest soon dissipates when the task ahead becomes apparent. (Steve Jarratt)
Sadly, as it stands Nether Earth is slow, monotonous and surprisingly empty. Like so many recent Argus Press releases it lacks that vital, indescribable spark and is severely devoid of polish. (Gary Penn)
When I first set up this page in 2005, I could find nothing at all about the Amstrad version, no screenshots, no review. Meanwhile, there are some screenshots on CPC Zone, but that's about all. It seems to have gone mostly unnoticed on this platform.
The CPC version was based on the ZX original, but didn't look quite as good. While there was no attribute clash problem here, the CPC was limited to four colors in hi-res mode.
Maybe it was an accident, and maybe it was pure genius, but this game had one of the best mechanics ever designed for any platform. The designer acknowledged the low A.I. of the units, so he designed the playing field as long and narrow, in order to minimize the robots' confusion. The enemy was just strong enough to pose a serious challenge, but not impossible to beat. The obstacles on the playing field enabled you to use a half a dozen of different strategies to defeat the enemy, which greatly enhanced the replay value. The interface, while cumbersome, had one huge advantage: the farther you progressed the longer it took you to fly to the front lines and issue new orders. This real-life problem was never replicated this well again.
