Space Debris

Space Debris is Richard Bannister's Crystal Quest clone for Macintosh, originally released in 1996 and updated in v2.2 after a two-year hiatus. The player avoids obstacles and hostile entities while collecting crystals and racing to the level exit; Macintosh Garden calls out its "vibrant colours, gripping gameplay and a daft death sound."

Crystal Quest, restated

The design hews to the Crystal Quest formula: navigate a procedurally cluttered playfield, sweep up crystals, dodge or shoot the things that want you dead, and reach the exit before the time pressure catches up with you. Bannister's pitch leans on presentation rather than reinvention - colourful sprite work, snappy hit feedback, and a death sound the author is happy to flag as silly.

What v2.2 changed

The 2001 v2.2 update is the maintenance release archived in Info-Mac. Highlights from the BinHex header: shareware fee cut from $25 to $10 (Bannister thanks early registrants for paying the original price), Control Strip hidden during play on PowerMacs, monitor fade-in/out throttled so it doesn't snap instantly on G4s, rewritten preferences code (registration codes must be re-entered), and a fix for late-game enemies jumping erratically.

Provenance

Author Richard Bannister (titan@indigo.ie), one of the more prolific Classic Mac shareware names; official page at www.bannister.org/software/. Distributed as space-debris-22.hqx on Info-Mac. Macintosh Garden mirrors the title under games/space-debris with a single screenshot and a 1996 release date.