BUGABOO(THE FLEA)
Producer Quicksilva, 48K £6 95(1} Author. Indescomp
PLATFORM GAMES
One of the most colourful and maddeningly addictive games of the pre-Christmas period. Bugaboo' boasts feature film titles and an engaging hero in the flea. Bugaboo has fallen into a deep gorge and must hop his way out. by leaping from ledge to ledge. The strength of leap is determined by releasing the key when the bar indicator at the bottom of the screen reaches the desired level As it moves extremely fast, this is not an easy task The gorge is swamped with vegetation which gets in the way, and there's an appalling yellow dragon which pops up and eats Bugaboo 2 keys control left/right hops and the cursors scroll Ihe screen Excellent, colourful graphics with very smooth movement, good sound and highly recommended No joystick option CRASH rating, addictive qualities 90%. overall 9 1 * M/C
Oh no. It wasn't the aeroplanes - It wat Beauty kilted (he Beast; says the m«n it the end of the lllm King Kong. As television it said to have killed trft the cinema, arcade games are said to be killing oil television, but good ideas cross all the barriers, so Its no surprise to see the famous Ape still going strong In the arcades. Kong games are perhaps the best known ol Ihe platform games, but there are quite a lew other types, all characterised by the need to climb ever higher either by jumping or climbing ladders and usually Botn. As with most arcade games joysticks are usually a help to higher scores. DIGGER OAN BARMY BURGERS Producer Ocean. 16K £5.90 Producer: Blaby. 48K £5.50
Author G Capowell
Sound and graphics are strong points of Blaby games and this maddening sesame seed bun of a game is no exception from its delightful titlecard onwards You're presented with four platforms with the various elements of three hamburgers suspended from them The task is to walk your chel over the ingredients which drops them level by level until they make up complete burgers burger, cheese, lettuce and top hall of the bun in that order This would all be very simple were it not for the fried egg and two sausages which dog your footsteps A blast of pepper will hold them up but there are only five blasts per life The chel can move up and down the platforms using the ladders, but so can the pursuers. Each screen provides you with more eggs and sausages to chase. Three lives with points scored by releasing segments of the ingredients or squashing eggs and sausages between the falling burger bits. Addictive. Joystick: AGF or Prolek and Kempston. Recommended
Digger Dan is armed only with a spade He must dig holes i n the four levels of platforms, using the ladders to get up and down Four monsters chase him around, hopefully upending m the holes, which he promptly fills in to kill them There are safe spots at the end of each platform but he can't linger because (he oxygen's running out. An oxygen bottle appears from time to time but getting at it can be difficult If the screen is cleared it returns with fresh and slightly more clever beasts Only one screen and speed, but Ihe graphics are smooth and nicely animated Dan can jump down through the holes too, useful in a tight spot The control key positions are sensible, but with six of them, a bit of a handful Reasonable value for money.
GODZILLA & THE MARTIANS
Producer: Temptation, 16K £5 95 Author Neil Streeier
Despite the title this is a Kong game — the only one in 16K for the Spectrum, but sadly it shows The animation is very poor and limited.the characters are small and themovemnt is jerky and ill-defined. There is a failing oxygen level for a time limit, but it appears to reach zero and stay there without ending the game Control keys are badly placed with 1/zero for jump left/right, 5/8 walk left/right and 7 lor up Another irritation is that there is only one life and one skill level Joystick: none CRASH rating: 35%
BONKERS
54
HOME RUNNER
Producer: Britannia. 4QK £5.95 This Is a Mvrlygame with attractive graphics and Is really a variation on the Jumping Jack theme Here the platforms are more solid looking and the holes open and close at random. Unlike Jumping Jack you can use the hold key to make your man hover over the holes. The various monsters jump down through the holes which makes timing an important feature of the game. On level three the Green Grinner appears, bouncing up and down, happily oblivious of the platforms or holes Britannia is a relatively new company, so it's nice to be able to say that both their games (Stopming Stan in this section is the other) are very playable and good value
JUMPING JACK
Producer: Imagine, 16K £5.50 Author: Albert Ball
At lirst sight the extremely simple graphics might be a disappointment —but this is a classic game Jack's stick figure is beautifully animated. The platforms are merely thin black lines. At llrst there are only two holes, one moving down level by level, and one moving up similarly Each successful jump creates another hole, so it gets Irustratingly difficult to progress Should Jack fait down a hole he lies stunned, if he lalls through two he's out for even longer. If he falls all the way to the bottom he loses a life Getting right to the top results in a line from a poem — you have to collect the rest of the lines, but the poem isn't the real reward in this game — it's playing the game Subsequent levels add more monsters which must be avoided by using the wrap around screen By the time you're dealing with twenty holes and six monsters it's a nut house. Quite simply one of the most addictive games around and excellent value for money Joystick: Fuller, Kempslon.
KILLER KONG
Producer Blaby. 48K £5.50
This is a very fine version with excellent graphics and plenty of screen variation. The detail is first class as well with neat animation Mario's girlfriend shouting for help but rewarding the succesful climb with big kisses Features lifts, trampolines, long narrow passages requiring expert timing to get through, a fairly butch looking Kong and probably the best sound on any program available. Joystick: Kempston or AGF & Protek. Recommended
KONG
Producer: Ocean. 48K £5.90 Author: Paul Owens
Procom. 16K £5 Author David James Producer.
A bunch of five earthlings are trapped on a space station by loads of aliens You must get them safely down through the floors 10 five airlocks at the bottom At first you have only one monster to contend wilh, but as you go along, more and more appear Each floor has a moving 'lift' through which you descend. The animation and detail are very good and the game gets extremely diflicult Our reviewers thought this was a winner. Cursor keys or E.S.D.X (which is a silly arrangement) Joystick: Kempston, Fuller. AGF & Protek 5 lives, well over 10 screens, good sound CRASH rating 78% M/C.
Erm« cannot stop until he gels to the other side and climbs up a level There's also a mean copper on the loose who. if he catches Ernie, sends him to the bottom of the screen after beating him up! Timing is the essence In this very difficult and attractive looking game Not one for beginners! Sensible control keys, joystick: Kempston. reasonably smooth compiled machine code. CRASH rating: overall 77% recommended
GOTCHAI
Producer:Blaby. 48K £5 50(1)
You're Ernie, an old lag just broken Out of prison. In the first screen you must escape Irom the prison compound, avoiding the guards and their torches, get through the opening and closing gates and into a life of crime in the second screen This is a nightmare of platforms, littered with Hitachi stereos and other valuable goodies to be collected, but the screen is dissected vertically by 6 gales which ride up and down the screen, all out of time with each other. Once committed,
Ocean's Kong is a pleasing version too. with chunky graphics starting with Kong stomping up the screen and thumping the girders into position. The animation is good wilh fast and positive movement Here, the objects tend lo come tumbling down the ladders, whereas In the Blaby version the platforms are more broken up and barrels etc drop off the ends of the platforms. So it's a little unfair to make lining up the man on the ladders such a critical business. Features a hammer which can knock out a few barrels. Keyboard positions are okay Joystick Kempston. Generally good value, bul did we detect a tendency
for the barrels to anticipate death? Five screens.
MANIC MINER
Producer: Bug-Byte. 4BK £5.95 This is the best platform game around, in fact it's probably the best arcade game for the Spoctrum. From the moment the full colour title blasts onto the screen accompanied by what sounds like ihe massed Coldstream Guards band. It s all wonderful. An amazing demo mode takes you through endless levels to whet the appetite Control keys are simple, left/nght/jump, and it seems incredible that Bug-Byte managed to pack so much animated detail into one 48K program You must take Willie the Miner through Ihe warrens of a long abandoned robot-worked mine beneath Surbiton, collecting keys at each level in order to proceed to the next Jumping up the platforms is easy — avoiding the slime, poisonous pansies and manic mining robots is not. Some platforms collapse when you tread on them, but forward planning let's you use these o n your way back down to the portal. Excellent quality all round and top notch value Highly recommended
MONSTERS IN HELL
Producer Sottek, 16K £5 95 Author Martin Lewis
Above the flickering fires of hell are six platforms connected by eight ladders. Your man has a hammer with which he can knock holes in the platforms for monsters to fail through, or he can bang them o n the head wilh it. All the while the power drain is enormous — visiting the flickering crosses replenishes It. but they move once used, so you can't just hammer holes and isolate yours oil from the monsters Kill off 25 of Ihe lesser idiots and the cleverer ghouls appear; ten o l those despatched and the Mad Monk's clones appear Ghouls must fall three levels to die. clones four, but the nexl lot can only die In the fires of heli itself While the graphics are attractive, ihe lack of screen changes could make ihe game boring to play after a white and it's really a no-win game Nine lives to help, machine code, no joystick option.
MORRIS MEETS THE BIKERS
Producer: Automata. 16K £6 00(1) Author S Curtis
Automata aren't noted for bringing Out arcade games, but true to tne company's mad hatter image. M o m s is loopy and original. It's also a very good arcade game Morns (a car) is shut in a nightmarish concrete multistorey car park with several ramps connected by two creaky lifts The car park is full of hazards like tyre clamps, tin tacks, parking tees and carbon monoxide lumes. all of which make Morris feel very sick Worst of all are the kamikaze bikers of the title, who roar around the place Morris has a weapon — a magic horn You must make him travel the car park to collect enough coins to be able to get through the exit barrier. Unpaid-for exits result in sudden death Should you succeed there are sight more car parks, each worse than the other A dubious bonus is the hit single Leader of the Pac' on the reverse side ol the tape by Lady Sinclive and Pimen Userdefined control keys, joystick Kempslon or AGF & Protek via userdefined cursors A good game wtth an overall CRASH rating of 74%.
PANIC
Producer: Mikrogen, 16KC5 95
Panic is a standard digger-filler game, where you rove several floors with your spade trying to clean up ihe monsters by digging holes for them to fall into A neat touch is tha* you must reach them quickly and batter them to death or they change colour and get out ot the hole, which