Mercenary - Escape From Targ

Play this classic +4 retro game online now - plus RARE maps!

The Commodore Plus 4 was a bit of an oddity. Essentially a C16 with 64k RAM and built in business applications the machine sold poorly in the UK although it was quite popular in Europe and still has a strong following in the home-brew community. despite the extra memory the Plus 4 lacked the hardware sprites of the mighty C64 and so most games were the same as the C16 counterparts with a few notable exceptions like Durell's Saboteur and Novagen's sci-fi classic, Mercenary - Escape From Targ.

I first laid eyes on this game on a friends Atari 800XL and remember gawping open-mouthed at the opening sequence which involves a first person space journey and crash landing on a green planet. I don't remember playing it for very long but the fast wire-frame graphics were astounding and represented something totally unattainable to a lowly C16 owner like myself.

Fastforward a few months or so and I finally managed to pimp my C16 with 64k ram expansion. Not an easy process as it involved bricking the C16 and having get my dad to drive to the house of the owner of the company that sold the expansion - who also weirdly turned out to be the owner of ANCO! He repaired my botched C16 on the spot and gave me a free copy of Karate King (which was shite) for my pains.

Anyway - I now had a machine capable of running Plus 4 only games so on the way back we picked up a boxed copy of the Mercenary Compendium set (containing the first game and it's sequel, The Second City). Unlike most C16 games of the time the package also contained the sort of extras normally associated with the big hitters on the C64 like Ultima. To my delight I found a full colour map and a full paperback novella entitled 'Interlude on Targ' (you can read it here). Lastly the box contained a mysterious envelope marked 'Targ Survival Kit - Open only in case of emergency', which of course ended up being opened after about an hour as I got hopelessly stuck.

Do I open it? (Screeshot from Amiga version)

In fact it tuned out that the survival kit maps were not nearly as helpful as the novella itself which basically chronicled the solution to the game in story form - and what a story it was. the eponymous protagonist, finding himself stranded on an alien planet soon becomes embroiled in a local war between two opposing factions, the Palyars and the Mechanoids. By undertaking missions for each faction the player can amass the required cash to afford repairs to his crashed spaceship and effect his escape.

The game isbeautifully represented in minimalist wireframe 3D which lends itself beautifully to the Plus 4' sprite free environment. And while Targ contains no actual visible inhabitants as such (Palyar spacecraft and the Mechanoid commander being the exception) the game succeeds in creating one of the most atmospheric and believable environments I've ever encountered in a game. A solitary and spooky experience (kinda like Nintendo's Super Metroid) but with a sense of humour too, the game created exhilerating experience like nothing I had ever played before.

The game has many stand-out moments such as when you finally find a vegicle capable of reaching high enough altitude to land on the Colony Craft floating in the sky. The vehicle in question was the Casper Hanely Eagle 8SE (or Cheese) which just looked like a big block of cheese - until you realise you can board it of course! After landing and entering the hangar on the colony craft and exploring for a few hours I found a scary door marked with a simple skull and cross-bones. Of course I had to open it and found myself rapidly exiting the side of the colony craft and descending the remaining 100000 feet back to the planet in freefall.

I'm proud to say I went on to finish the game after many hours of map making, tunnel crawling and getting shot down for blowing up the towns many attractions. I'm not so proud to admit that The Second City utterly defeated me with it's mind boggling difficulty.

Maybe one day I will tackle it again.

The Central City Map

The Targ Survival Kit

The Novella Link

An Interlude on Targ

The Game

Click here to play Play Mercenary: Escape From Targ!

*** PRESS F10 to enable Joystick 1 (Cursor Keys) ***

Game Instructions:

B --- Board Vehicle
L --- Leave Vehicle
E --- Operate Elevator
T --- Take Object
D --- Drop object
Y --- Yes
0-9 --- Power Level
SHIFT+0-9 --- Power Level (Reverse)
+ --- Increase Power
- --- Decrease Power
Space --- Stop
CTRL+RETURN --- Pause Game (any key to restart)

The Solution

Sadly you can't save the game on this version but for a quick nostalgia trip it does the job. In fact why not follow the 15 minute completion guide below and get to the end!!!

1: Buy or steal the Dominion Dart (your choice).

2: Go to the hangar at Loc. 11-13. Leave the Dart. On one wall of the hangar there are three doors. Go through the door on the left, then get the cheese. Return to the hangar and go up to the surface. Drop the cheese, then board it.

3: Go to the hangar at Loc. 81-35. On the wall with the two 'normal' doors, go through the door on the left. Get the key, then go back and exit the hangar.

4: Go to the Palyar Colony Craft hangar. One wall has a single door, go through this door. Go into the elevator on the left. After exiting the elevator, go through the door nearest to you. Go through the first door on the right (into the kitchen) and get the Kitchen Sink. Go back and exit the hangar.

5: Go to the hangar at Loc. 09-06. There are two doors in one corner of the hangar, go through the door on the left. Get the cobweb, then go back and exit the hangar.

6: Go to the hangar at Loc. 09-05. On one wall there is a single triangular door. Go through this door and get the Photon Emitter. Go back and exit the hangar.

7: Find the hangar in the Loc. **-** area. Leave the cheese (you don't need it anymore). Go through the only door in this hangar, and keep going through each room to the next (avoiding the transporters) until you find the Novadrive. Get it, then go back to the room with the transporters. Go in the middle transporter (the one with the 'X' on the door).

8: Exit the transporter, then go through the door at the far end of the room, then go through the door on the left, then the door ahead, then the door with the skull & crossbones.
9: Board the interstellar ship and exit the hangar.

10: Press Y to launch!

The Remake

Finally, if after all that you're still hungry for some Mechanoid/Palyar action and want to play the game in full - I would recommend the MDDClone remake. The latest version includes the full game and ALL the sequels so you get Mercenary 1 - Escape From Targ, The Second City, Damocles, and Mercenary III: The Dion Crisis.

You can download the PC version here.

Minus4j Emulator by Mike Dailly. Updates from http://minus4.plus4.net