The Sentinel

The Sentinel is opened, and it begins to transmit that humans have become technological.

An otherwise unremarkable story, except for the fact that it spawned 2001: a space odyssey.

A stunningly original game, the basic premise was the player (in a robot body) escaping from a three Dimensional landscape, which was watched over by the sentinel.

The originality stemmed from the fact that you couldn't actually just move around, the only way to move was to teleport. You could only teleport to another robot body (which you first create), on the square that you wanted to move to.

Creating a new robot costs energy, energy is obtained by absorbing old robot bodies you no longer need, and absorbing the trees dotted around the landscape.

It was also possible to create boulders, that could be stacked. Stacking several boulders, then creating a robot body on top was the way to gain a higher point in the landscape.

However, all teleporting, creating and absorbing can only be performed on objects in squares that you can see the base of. This is the key to the whole game, and why it is so challenging.

To make matters more difficult, there is the Sentinel. He watches over the entire landscape, slowly rotating to peruse all areas. If he saw you, he would start draining your energy very quickly. You needed to absorb the sentinel to complete the level, teleporting to the next was only possible from the sentinels platform.

The amount of energy you had left at the end of the level, would determine how many levels you skipped.

Truly a classic game, and a prime candidate for an open source reworking.

The Sentinel is also a novel by Jeffrey Konvitz, published in 1974. The story is in a similar vein to Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist, dealing with demonic possession and supernatural forces.

From the jacket: "A beautiful young model. The old brownstone apartment she simply had to have. The grotesque blind priest who watched down on her day and night from an upper-storey window. The pair of perverted creatures who wanted her to join their circle. The mad little old man who gave her tea and sympathy. The cool, calculating, supremely rational lover who first mocked her fears. And the secret you will never be able to forget, even if you try..."

I found a rather dog-eared copy of this book in a second hand shop, obviously an original copy from around the time it was first published. Books about demonic possession look dated today, they were a fad of the 60's and 70's, but nevertheless I have a soft spot for the genre having enjoyed The Exorcist, Rosemary's Baby, The Amitiville Horror and a number of lesser known titles from the period. The Sentinel is one of the better known examples. Apparently there is also a film.