The Cosmic Tunnels

Overview

The Cosmic Tunnels is a multi-stage action game for Commodore 64 and Atari 8-bit featuring three distinct gameplay sections per level, and a hub world.

Hub

There are four, colored "tunnels" in the hub world, located above a city. To select a stage, the player navigates the ship through a tunnel in any order. Each tunnel has different character models and color schemes for the following sections.

Tunnel

Tunnels are in first-person perspective, where the player controls a space ship as it navigates through. Mines serve as obstacles, and must be destroyed by firing at them. Missing a mine or getting hit by one results in a loss of energy. Energy levels stay from section to section, so it is important to destroy all mines.

Landing

Landing the ship on a platform is the object of this stage. There are numerous missile launchers which will destroy the ship if the player is hit. The ship can drop bombs on the missile launchers for points and to make the landing area safer. The topography of the asteroid is hazardous, requiring careful navigation to avoid the walls. Hitting a wall results in energy loss.

Surface

Once safely on the surface, the object shifts to gathering four energy bars and returning them to the ship on a 3/4 view action / platform section. There are numerous enemies and traps to avoid. To help, the player can "run" briefly or use a jetcopter or rocket springs (depending on the stage) to navigate the stage safely. Once the bars are collected, the stages begin in reverse order to get back to the city safely. If the player runs out of energy, a life is lost, and the stage must be restarted. When the player runs out of lives, gameplay ends.