Voltage

Voltage is set in 1980s Frontier, Missouri, where Mark spends his summer holiday before college with his friends Jesse, Benjamin and Simon. While exploring a scrap yard, Mark finds a prototype pair of VR glasses and a floppy disk inside a damaged truck. He discovers that the glasses work with his Amiga 500 and can unlock hidden capabilities in the computer. When he launches the disk’s game, he enters AOSYS, an interconnected virtual space linked to a parallel universe where the Amiga became the world’s second-largest and most advanced computer system.

Mark and AOSYS

AOSYS was created in 1982 by Dr. Stephen J. McRegon, a scientist and computer engineer who developed a virtual reality system ahead of its time. In the other universe, the C-I Advanced Technology Department notices Mark’s arrival and sends an army into the game to track him down and recover the glasses. Voltage was once peaceful; Mark must complete Episode 1’s sublevels and restore peace.

Episode 1

The full Episode 1 includes eight large sublevels, including an optional tutorial:

• Tutorial Zone: practise box-pushing and using switches, and learn the game’s logic and other skills.
• Warm-up: a short level before the main adventure.
• Hometown: search Mark’s home for the Amiga 500 to begin the journey in AOSYS. The expanded level includes many houses and surprises.
• Dark Side: escape the mysterious place where AOSYS spawns “dead” characters to keep the system running. Mark is sent there by accident when he enters Voltage.
• Star Qruiser: explore an enemy-filled spaceship and try to escape. This mission offers about 100–130 minutes of gameplay, and its development section may contain dinosaurs.
• Terraria: explore a spaceship used to grow food for its crew and farm unusual animals, including dinosaurs. Take care not to let them out of their cages.
• Into the Desert: after escaping the Star Qruiser in an emergency shuttle, an error strands Mark in a scorching desert. Search for a familiar town or a vehicle to escape.
• BunkerWay: explore the bunker’s large sections and find the route to the “safe” way to Voltage Town, the setting of Episode 2.

Actions and weapons

You can operate switches, dive and swim, and push or move objects. You can also pick up, carry and drop objects, though this feature is currently enabled for only one object. Characters can speak through text.

Episode 1 includes at least these weapons: Shotgun, Sniper M700, Magnum 357, Colt 1911, RPG, Crossbow, Dagger, Hatchet, Bow, Halberd, Mace, Stones to throw, Grenades and a futuretek gun. Other melee weapons found across the levels are Baseball Bat, Bow Saw, Cleaver, Cricket Bat, Crowbar, File, Garden Fork, Hammer, Lead Pipe, Pickaxe, Screwdriver, Shovel, Sledgehammer, Spanner and Wrench.

McRegon’s transmission

McRegon found a way to send radio waves faster than light, breaking the cosmic speed limit and opening a portal between dimensions. The portal can send only small objects or voices, allowing AOSYS to reach Mark’s universe.