ShortCut

ShortCut is a loose remake/adaptation of the Commodore 64 game Paradroid. Just like with many other games by the same author, ShortCut closely replicates the game mechanics of the original, but offers its own levels and graphics.

The story is set sometime in the future, on a large space ship called FPSS Starhawk. Hostile agents sabotaged the ship's service droids, who turned upon the crew, resulting in the entire vessel's evacuation. Now the player controls the "influence device No. 001", which is a small robot that can take over any of the ship's droids by reprogramming them. The mission is to clear all decks of hostile robots by converting or destroying them.

The ship has multiple decks connected with elevator chutes. Just like in Paradroid, the player can either shoot the robots that roam each deck or try to take them over one by one, in which case a minigame is played that represents a droid being reprogrammed. In the minigame, there is a column of blocks at the centre of the screen, with two sides, red and blue. There are randomly assorted tubes connected to each block, and the player has a limited number of "plugs", which, when connected to a tube, will change the respective block's colour to the player's. The opponent can do the same. The player has the choice of the side/colour, which can aid greatly since some tubes may have forks that allow to colour two blocks with a single plug, while some tubes are not connected to blocks at all. The side that has more blocks of its colour than the opponent wins when the timer reaches zero.

Winning the minigame will transfer the target droid to the player's control, potentially giving greater firepower, shields or movement speed. If control is transferred from one droid to another, the previous "host" is considered destroyed. If the minigame is lost when the player only controls the influence device, it will be destroyed, meaning game over. If the player was controlling a droid, then only the droid is destroyed.

Author Georg Rottensteiner released ShortCut as freeware.