Spacecab

Spacecab (Space Cab) is a 1997 shareware action game for the classic Mac OS by Kevin Quigley of Peace, Love and World Groovyness Software, an unabashed homage to the Commodore 64 cult favorite Space Taxi. The player pilots a jet-powered taxi, ferrying customers between landing pads while juggling fuel, gravity, and an unforgiving cityscape of obstacles.

Pad-to-Pad Cab Driving

Each level is a single screen filled with multiple landing pads. A customer appears at one pad and calls for a destination; the player flies the cab there with mouse or keyboard, lands cleanly, and repeats. Visit every pad in a level and a door at the top of the screen opens to the next stage.

What Version 1.2 Added

The 1.2 release ships with faster animation, an updated look and interface, more sound effects, and an expandability hook for future content. Players earn free cabs every 500 points (dollars), and the preferences pane is broader than earlier builds. Aladdin Systems' Electronic Commerce hooks are baked in for online shareware registration.

Roots in Space Taxi

Macintosh Garden classes Space Cab as a direct clone of the 1984 C64 hit Space Taxi by Muse Software / John F. Kutcher, right down to the fuel meter, pad-hopping rhythm, and the polite "Pad N please!" cadence of customer requests, ported to color Mac graphics and sound.

System Notes

Distributed via Info-Mac as spacecab-12.hqx (BinHex 4.0 encoded), the game targets color-capable 68k and PowerPC Macs running System 7 or later. Registration was handled through Groovysoft (groovysoft.com) and Aladdin's e-commerce flow.