Review: K240

Geraldine

Re-discovering Amigas after a bit of an absence!
Joined
Aug 4, 2010
Posts
1,200
Country
Scotland
Region
Renfrewshire
Ah,...K240 :)
A strategy and management game created by Gemlin and released in 1994 as a sequel to Utopia, this little gem was set in the year 2380 where the object of the game was to set up mining operations in the swarms asteroids within sector K240 (where the game gets its name from). So far so good, create a mining colony, harvest the finite resources and sell them back to the Terran Empire for a profit. All straight forward.

However things are not a peaceful as they might appear. There are other alien races out there in the sector who have their own colonies and they Dont take too kindly to you coming into their patch and nicking their resources and minerals!

This is were you have to switch your development over to more military based production with the likes of asteroid based missile silos and your own strike craft with custom load outs of weapons. Use of more covert methods of spying on rivals can also be employed by way of spy satellites.

In an effort to maintain a technological lead you can also buy blueprints from a Terran corporation called Sci-Tek to improve colony buildings and buy new designs for weapons and ships. However you must wait until the Empire's flagship arrives to collect resources before getting access to them. Also, the Empire will also occasionally send ships to help out too.

Ultimately, you will have to take over the entire sector and drive out all the alien races you encounter by way of a selection of missions which vary on how advanced the aliens are that you will be facing.

A tip, as an asteroid becomes drained of resources, why not fit a set of engines to it and use it as God's own hammer on those pesky alien colonies! Its fun to watch it slowly make its way across the strategy map on a collision course with the enemy throwing everything they have against it to no avail, result? KABOOM!!

Graphics are of the functional isometric variety and you can create your own custom set of short cut buttons on the main game screen to your requirements.

Sound is basic but it makes enough of a racket when a big ship to ship battle tales place.

This game should run on any Amiga with 1 meg of ram, although you will need more than this if you intend to use the WHD Load option.

Overall this game has lots great strategy options although I would recommend getting hold of the manual first and giving it a good read through so that you can understand how to access the various screens within the game.

A good source of tips can be found here http://www.jonnydigital.com/k240

A gameplay vid here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc7z...xt=C3624cfcFDOEgsToPDskJlMor6KeTKxfSIIjAINWGT

Scan of the manual here

And to finish off here are some screen shots, have fun and watch out for rogue comets!
 

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Nice review Geraldine. (y)

Unofficial known as Utopia 2. Played both games in the past, I personally prefer the first game.
 
Great Review! I used to love K240 "Welcome to Scitek"
 
I do love my resource building strategy games. This is a must try for me now, thanks for the review. :)
 
Thanks for the review Geraldine

this is one of my most favourite games - played to completion and back again!

I would love this game to get a HD revisit with multi-player co-op and head-to-head modes!
 
You can have the c++ book back if you'd like buddy. ;)
 

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Going to give that a go. Nice review Geraldine. I'm surprised this passed me by at the time as I love these games!

:)

John
 
:LOL:
Well I am glad you all liked the review, K240 is great and deserves to be played. Now going to have a think about doing another game review. Question is which one as there is so many great classics. :unsure:
 
:LOL:
Well I am glad you all liked the review, K240 is great and deserves to be played. Now going to have a think about doing another game review. Question is which one as there is so many great classics. :unsure:

Actually, review something that you liked before, a genre that you're special in it, and love to write a review for it. :)
 
I was kind of hoping someone else **cough AndyLandy cough** might do a review of Frontier. I've wrote so much about the game at the SSC and the Frontier Forum in the past. For wrote, read rant! :LOL: :oops:. Perhaps I will if no-one else does it. :)
 
Age Of Asteroids

Age Of Asteroids

Just a heads up, I've noticed a re-make of K240 is in progress over on Indie DB. Its called Age Of Asteroids. Here is a video of combat from an early build if your interested. :)
 
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