SOFT
| This month we visited the
Stanwell Computer Club (which
meets weekly at the Stanwell
School, Short Lane, every Friday
evening from 7-lOpm). Five of
the resident 'freaks' were enlisted
to tell us (and you) what was good
or bad about the programs we gave
them to play around with. In some
cases comment was justifiably
harsh, and in others they could
hardly contain their glee at coming
across a really well thought out
game. The guinea-pig five whose comments appear below, are all members of the club, and they are (in alphabetical order): Corrie Brown, Stephen Cathrall, Ryan Davis, Stewart McPherson and Peter Shaw. Peter, by the way, is also Secretary of the Stanwell Club. Them we do thank. |
SPECTRUM SAFARI
CDS MICROSYSTEMS / £5.95
A semi-adventure where you wander round the screen coming across various animals which all ask you to play games, or solve riddles. Really, a sort of compendium of games rolled into one.
Peter This is a collection of bad 'magazine type' programs thrown together, with less than spectacular graphics and an average choice of colours. And because it's written in Basic, it's not particularly fast.
Stewart There's an overall strategy theme, with varying speeds for each section - although it's never dazzlingly fast. You'll find such items as gorilla-gambling, snake-shooting and guessing games.
Stephen This is a sort of adventure, but the player need not be too skilful at arcade games to succeed.
XARK
CONTRAST SOFTWARE / £5.95
A Defender-type game in which you are (according to the classic game theme) the last survivor of the planetwide attack, and as the last one left, it is up to you to save the rest of the planet.
Peter Speed, colour and graphics are all just above average, but perhaps the graphics could have been a little better considering this is a 48K game. Overall, a poorly presented Defender conversion.
Stewart It's quite fast, but slows down considerably if the player fires continuously. And there's little variation between the four screens, which makes it boring in a matter of minutes.
Ryan Could become a best seller! Only one complaint - and that's the choice of keys.
ROBBER
VIRGIN GAMES / £5.95
An original idea that involves you in stealing the loot, and avoiding the searchlight as it scans the screen.
Peter Although this program was put together using the Softek compiler, it's still awfully slow and the graphics have taken a backward leap in time to the simple block graphics of the ZX81. It did seem that Virgin Games were improving their software selection ...
Stewart Unbelievably slow, this game is a long way behind the times graphically, and generally leaves a lot to be desired.
Corrie Basically, very slow. Not bad overall and an original idea but frankly, a rotten presentation.
DOOMSDAY CASTLE
FANTASY SOFTWARE / £6.50
A graphics adventure in the true sense of the word. You control a little man who zooms around the castle, collecting various objects, etc. It's similar in style to Atic Atac.
Stewart The nasties are nicely designed, and their movement is delightfully smooth. Constant attention is demanded by the 'Urks' and 'Carthrogs' as they rush around the screen.
Peter Here is a very colourful arcade game with an adventure-type aim. Very enjoyable and well worth a look.
Stephen Quite a slow response to the player's directions, even when using a joystick. Otherwise, I liked it.
PAT THE POSTMAN
MIKRO-GEN / £6.95
The concept of this game is simple; all the player has to do is to help Pat - the amnesiac postman - collect parcels from various houses and take them to the Post Office.
Peter Good colour, bad graphics and very slow. But the worst part about this game is the lack of instructions, which makes it a bit difficult to find out what's going on.
Stewart Simple block graphics and average use of colour are the extent of this game's presentation.
Ryan Definitely not one of Mikro-Gen's best efforts. There are much better games around for the money.
