Saboteur II

A silent infiltration of an enemy base, a ninja in black creeping through the shadows and striking at just the right moment. Saboteur II was one of the first titles on the eight-bit computers to offer players something like stealth action long before that term became common parlance.

The game is a sequel to the successful Saboteur by Clive Townsend and pushes the concept further: this time you take on the role of the female ninja Nina, who has to penetrate a complex, obtain a diskette with secret data and escape before time runs out. Mechanically it is an action platformer with elements of exploration, blending combat, climbing, evading guards and guard dogs, and finding the right path through the tangled environment. The emphasis on cautious progress and memorising the level layouts gave the game a distinctive tension.

On the Spectrum and its compatible clones, which included the Slovak Didaktik computers, Saboteur II enjoyed great popularity. As the domestic counterpart of the ZX Spectrum, the Didaktik allowed many players in Czechoslovakia to experience the world hits of the day, and action titles like this one were among the most played.

Culturally, Saboteur II is also interesting for casting a female heroine in the lead role at a time when that was far from common. Together with an atmosphere inspired by Eastern martial arts and the cinematic world of the eighties ninja, the game captured the trends of the day well.

For those who remember the eight-bit era, Saboteur II remains a symbol of cleverly designed action that could create a sense of tension and danger even on modest hardware. It is one of the titles thanks to which a generation of players on the Spectrum and Didaktik fell in love with the action-infiltration genre.

Why play it: For atmospheric ninja action with elements of stealth that was ahead of its time on the eight-bits, and for a piece of nostalgia bound up with the domestic Didaktik scene.