Tau Ceti: The Special Edition, was released for the 128K Spectrum and Amstrad CPC in 1987, with extra coding by Chris Newcombe.

[1]Cooke was also inspired when writing Tau Ceti by the works of the science-fiction writers Larry Niven and Isaac Asimov,[2] and the space-simulator Elite.

The only chance, it was decided, of successfully stopping the defence systems without destroying the cities already there is to send a single pilot in an armoured Gal-Corp skimmer to the planet's surface with the task of shutting down the central reactor in Tau Ceti III's capital, Centralis.

As well as displaying these 3D graphics, Cooke's game engine renders them with simple shadows in order to simulate the day and night cycle of Tau Ceti III.

The cities of Tau Ceti III are extremely hostile places as they are full of robot defences.

The skimmer is also fitted with a scanner in order to detect buildings or Hunters not in its forward view or at a distance, and a compass to aid navigation.

To cope with Tau Ceti III's frequent hours of darkness, the skimmer has an infra-red display mode and also carries a limited number of short-lived flares.

Although Tau Ceti is primarily an action game, it has some text-input sections when the skimmer docks or lands on the planet's surface.

When this happens, the player can communicate with the skimmer using simple commands such as "HELP", "STATUS" or "SCORE" to get access to game information.

[7] Another Spectrum magazine, Sinclair User, gave it a 5 star rating and declared "It's hard to imagine a better space game, unless one's talking about Elite, with its intergalactic scope and strategic depth.