Controls:
Left / Right: Move
Up / Space: Jump
Enter: Fire (hold to angle a rocket or keep a minigun firing)
T: Use a teleporter
Esc: Abandon | Q: Lose a life | R: Return | O: Options
Find all eight pulsating neurons and shut them down to win.
The mind is split into three zones - Ego, Psyche, and Id. Ego comes first, and Id only opens once Ego is finished.
Each zone has a hub, and the neurons sit in side rooms leading off it.
Teleporters are the real doors between rooms. Stand in the exact centre of one and press T, or nothing will happen.
Enemies drop bonuses, and a close-range hit with a heavy weapon pays better than a safe shot from across the room.
Stringing bonuses together matters: every 100,000 points gives you another life.
Heavy weapons destroy scenery, including teleporter bases, which can leave you stranded in a room with no way out.
Sometimes the safest move is to leave a pickup lying on the floor.
Tip: Arrows do not always point the way. If a room looks like a dead end, walk it again and look for the teleporter you stepped past!
Asylum is a 1994 Acorn Archimedes platformer that treats a mind like a building you can fall off. You drop into Sigmund's inner architecture — Ego, Psyche, Id — and hunt the eight pulsating neurons that will not shut down on their own.
Each zone has a hub. The neurons live in side rooms. The only honest door between them is a teleporter that looks like a small altar. Stand in the exact center and press T, or you will keep walking the same corridor and call it progress.
Ego is the primer. Psyche is the one people come back for, the strangest rooms and the best jokes. Id will not open until Ego is finished, as if the game itself agrees that you should not meet the basement first.
The shooting is not a sideshow. Enemies drop bonuses, and a point-blank blast with a heavy gun pays better than a polite shot from across the room. Hold fire to tilt a rocket or to keep a minigun screaming. The Megablam 5000 can chew half a screen, or six rockets through a wall you thought was scenery. It can also vaporize a teleporter base and strand you. The rare Weird One has a private joke. Sometimes the kindest move is to leave a pickup on the floor.
Andy Southgate built the original for RISC machines; this port keeps the old speed and the old refusal to hold your hand. Arrows do not always mark the way. Lives come back every 100,000 points if you bother to string the bonuses. Save when the head lets you. The win condition is simple and unkind: find all eight neurons and turn them off. Until then you are a guest in a house that keeps rearranging the stairs.
