Jock and the Time Rings

Crash

Use of Computer 59%

Graphics 38%

Playability 31%

Getting Started 56%

Addictive Qualities 32%

Value For Money 35%

Overall 32%

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Producer: Atlantis Retail Price: £1.99 Jock, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dusty Bin, is stuck in the wrong time zone. You must help him return to his own time by collecting 32 time rings from each of the three time zones he visits. Before you can enter a new time zone you must give the correct password and this is only given to you once the 32 rings from the previous time zone have been collected. Naturally this doesn't apply to the first zone or else you'd never get started. Each zone has a maze protecting the time ring and Jock has to find his way around these mazes trying to collect the rings. He can move upwards, downwards, left and right. He also possesses something called a speed booster. This enables Jock to put on an extra spurt of speed to escape from the Time Guardian, but the power which he is given at the beginning of the game and which depletes gradually as he moves around, goes down a lot quicker when Jock is using his speed booster. However, Jock's power pack is regenerated at the beginning of each time zone. Jock is not the only one interested in the time rings. They are also possessively guarded by the Guardian of the Rings who buzzes around the mazes in a variety of colourful disguises blocking the route to the rings. Any contact with the Guardian spells instant death for Jock. Well, actually it isn't instant as such because Jock is provided with nine lives at the start of the game. He loses a life every time he brushes against the various Guardians but he gains a life for every five rings he manages to collect. To make matters worse Jock only has a certain amount of time in which to gain possession of a ring because they become unstable in his presence. If he takes too long to get around a maze then the radiation level in the ring becomes lethal and he loses a life. You can keep a check on Jock's progress by looking at the chart at the bottom of your screen. This shows how much energy Jock has left in his power pack. It also shows how many lives he has remaining and how many rings have been collected. You can also check the score: Points are scored for each ring collected depending on its colour. Extra points are scored for how much power Jock has left at the end of a zone. Once Jock has negotiated his way around onetime zone and collected 32 rings from it then he can move on to the next one. A password is flashed up onto the screen which gives you access to the next part of the game. The game ends when Jock has completed all three time zones and collected the required number of time rings. It is then possible for him to return to his own time of 2112 AD, no doubt for a refreshing game of the same name! COMMENTS Control keys: definable Joystick: none Keyboard play: reasonable Use of colour: average Graphics: big, fat and jolly Sound: crummy Skill levels: one Screens: three time zones with 31 rooms in each

ZX ComputingZX Computing Glob Minor

Overall Grim

Atlantis £1.99 Atlantis aren't a company that you hear a lot about, but they've been producing budget games for a quite a while now and haven't been gobbled up by any of the larger software houses, so presumably they're doing OK. Jock and the Time Rings, one of their latest releases, is an old fashioned maze game in which you have to collect a number of objects to complete the game. Jock, a robot looking like R2D2 on an off day, has gotten lost in time and the only way he can return to his own time is to collect 32 time rings from each of three time zones. After entering the first zone, the only way to get into the next zones is to find all the objects and gain a password, but the rings are protected by The Guardian of The Rings who turns out to be a collection of deadly sprites patrolling the maze. Obviously, colliding with any of the Guardian's sprites will cause you to lose a life, but in addition, as Jock enters each section of the maze the ring in that section starts to become unstable, giving off radiation that will kill him it he doesn't collect the ring within the same time limit. Graphically, the game looks rather old fashioned - the maze is made up of large, chunky bits of brickwork and the size of the bricks means that each section of the maze has to be kept fairly simple. Jock and all the other sprites are large and quite smoothly animated, though none of them move terribly quickly, so this isn't a game that is likely to generate any frantic action. The main problem is working out how to get to all the rings because though the individual screens appear quite simple many of the rings seem inaccessible unless you've got a good idea of the layout of the whole zone. I can't say that this game exactly enthralled me. but for £1.99 it's a reasonable, if rather dated, game.