Space Station Zero Alpha - the computer game!

As a bit of fun, I've been undertaking a wonderful online course on computer science called CS 50.  The first project involves creating a program in Scratch, a language designed for beginners in computer programming that does a lot of the work for you.

Looking for inspiration, I decided to create an updated version of an old computer game I created back in the eighties, during the home computer craze, called Space Station Alpha.  This was a game written in under 16K for the ZX Spectrum.

This new version is a lot faster and I really wish I had these sorts of facilities when I was a teenager! I've used the graphics from current work on my space settlement film. It's a very simple game. The player is in charge of the defences of Space Station Zero Alpha, the last space station left to protect Earth (or Sol III as it's called in the game).  You have to blast the invading Centaurian Space Destroyers before they either destroy your station or dock with it and invade.

As this is a revamp of a home computer game that was previously written in Sinclair BASIC, you of course have to use keys to play the game, in this case as follows:

Q - Up
A - Down
I - Left
P - Right
O - FIRE!

If your damage goes over 100% or the Centaurian Space Destroyer reaches the docking port, you've lost. You have to survive twenty waves of invaders to win. Good luck and let's hope you save Sol III!