Time-Gate
Time-Gate (also known as Timegate, 4D Time-Gate or 4D Defender) is a ZX Spectrum game from Quicksilva, and one of the first 3D combat games. The name is derived from its treatment of time as a dimension, in which one could travel (albeit backwards only). The first press launch in the UK games industry was for this title.
Also recorded as Timegate
Time-Gate
- Date
- 1983
- Publisher
- Time-Gate was published by Quicksilva.
- Genre
- action game · simulation video game
- Held by
- Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
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Documentary summary
Time-Gate (also known as Timegate, 4D Time-Gate or 4D Defender) is a ZX Spectrum game from Quicksilva, and one of the first 3D combat games. The name is derived from its treatment of time as a dimension, in which one could travel (albeit backwards only). The first press launch in the UK games industry was for this title.
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Documentary evidence
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wikidata · Q7804802
In this article
The object
The object
Publication is recorded by Quicksilva. The recorded date of publication is 1983. It is associated with United Kingdom. Recorded genres are action game and simulation video game. It is recorded in the collection of Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.
Key facts
Key facts
• Title — Time-Gate • Developer — John Hollis • Publisher — Quicksilva • Released — 1982 • Genre — Action • Modes — Single-player • Platforms — ZX Spectrum
Plot
Plot
Time-Gate had one embarking on a perilous mission to repel the Squarm invaders who have conquered Earth, by fighting through hordes of same, thus finding and locating the time-gates (hence the name) and using the gates to travel back through time to an earlier era, where one fought through more Squarm to find another gate. Eventually, if one hadn't been killed by the enemy, one got back to the year before the Squarm invaded, located their home planet, and locked onto it with one's meson RAM (48K), thereby destroying it and retroactively preventing its inhabitants from ever having invaded in the first place.
Development
Development
Time-Gate, due to its intense use of machine-code-driven sound, placed more stress on the Spectrum's sound capabilities than previous games, and thereby inadvertently revealed a design flaw in early machines, whereby the Time-Gate sound effects would crash those machines. This resulted in some people buying the game to stress-test their Spectrums.
Places
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Places
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- United Kingdom
Named but not plotted · 1
Time-Gate is associated with United Kingdom.
Country
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Sunshine Publications. Top 10. Popular Computing Weekly. 1. 36. 31. 30 December 1982.
- 2.Eyles, Mark. A first-hand account of Quicksilva and its part in the birth of the UK games industry, 1981–1982. Cogent Arts & Humanities. 3. 2016. 10.1080/23311983.2016.1190441.
- 3.Letter from Quicksilva to ZX Computing magazine, April–May 1983 — http://www.worldofspectrum.org/showmag.cgi?mag=ZXComputing/Issue8304/Pages/ZXComputing830400009.jpg
References
Citations
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authority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 19 August 2026.
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