Jokers Wild

Your Spectrum

PHOENIX DOUBLES UP Phoenix Software has just launched a range of games for £6.99 that the company describes a 'steal'. Pinch 'em if you must, but basically each cassette contains two games - one arcade and one adventure; complete the arcade version, then flip over for the other. Part one, Joker's Wild, has you stopping enemy aliens from capturing the souls of the human race with hypnotic cards. The Dragon adventure has you eliminating a corrupt Emperor - and clues and running code are locked inside a tiny sealed envelope marked 'Panic Packet - Only Open in Dire Emergency'. Both games will slot on to either a 16K or 48K Spectrum, and you'll find them at Boots and all good (not to mention, bad) computer stores.

Sinclair Programs

June Mortimer

This month we focus on a selection of games and on the new range of software for students of Shakespeare from Penguin Books. Jokers Wild is divided into two sections - adventure and action game. To play the adventure, skill level four of the action game must be reached. At the end of each skill level, clues for the adventure are provided, all of which remain obscure until the adventure is reached. Novel features of the action game are the compression of the maze format into a grid, making it much more difficult to become accustomed to the maze layout; the fast-moving - but predictable by the very alert - movement of the knaves and the provision of a separate adventure game, as a reward for the skillful player. Jokers Wild is produced for the 16K or 48K Spectrum by Phoenix Software, [redacted] and costs £9.99.

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 4/5

Playability 4/5

Use Of Machine 4/5

Overall Value 4/5

Bill Davies

Bob Chappell

Geof Wheelwight

Jim Ballard

Mike Gerrard

Simon Williams

PCN MICROPAEDIA VOL 21 PART 2 GAMES GALORE PCN stacks up the best games on the block for Spectrum Dragon Atari BBC As promised in our last issue, here is the second part of the games Micropaedia. If you didn't find something to suit your taste last week you'll probably have more luck this time around. The featured micros are the Spectrum, BBC Micro B, Dragon 32 and Atari. On the following 2 pages we present a selection for the Sinclair Spectrum - both for 16K and 48K machines. NAME: Jokers Wild SYSTEM: Any Spectrum PRICE: £9.99 PUBLISHER: Phoenix Software, [redacted] FORMAT: Cassette LANGUAGE: Machine code OTHER VERSIONS: None OUTLETS: Mail order/retail Phoenix continue their interesting policy of offering one action and one adventure cassette in the same package, success at the first bringing you the running code you need to play the second. The setting this time is a funfair. In the arcade-style action you collect four playing cards from the comers of a grid and deposit them in a box in the middle while a number of knaves whiz round trying to prevent you. At the end of each skill level you're given a clue for the adventure, and at the end of the fourth you're given the running code, though there are still three more skill levels if you want to continue playing. Armed only with a pack of cards you then step into the funfair, which is of course manned by our intergalactic enemies whose idea of fun is to capture people's souls. You have to put a stop to this naughtiness. Much as I enjoyed the action, the adventure proved a welcome haven of peace and quiet. You are set down outside the Bunko Booth, whatever that is, and have only a pack of cards with you, plus the clues you've earned from the action. You explore the funfair, trying to find a way in to see people like the Fortune Teller and the Bearded Lady, and naturally you're collecting objects as you go. Initially the adventure seems fairly easy and you can amass a great number of objects, but then you begin to run up against problems that will be familiar to seasoned adventurers, like how do you get past an elephant standing in your way? I preferred this to Phoenix's earlier Death Mines of Sims for the Dragon, though I think its main appeal will be to the arcade buff who also wants a little fun from an adventure you don't need to be a genius to get into. Micropaedia Editor: Geof Wheelwright Design: Paul Clarkson Contributors: Jim Ballard, Bob Chappell, Bill Davies, Mike Gerrard and Simon Williams NEXT WEEK We begin a five-part series of detailed graphics techniques for the BBC Micro, the Acorn Electron, the Oric Atmos, the Oric-1, the Atari series of home computers, the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair Spectrum.

Crash

Use of Computer 70%

Graphics 68%

Playability 68%

Getting Started 71%

Addictive Qualities 72%

Value For Money 65%

Overall 69%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Phoenix Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £9.99 Language: Machine code Author: Nic Ford Following on from their Dodge City double cassette game, Phoenix now offer Jokers Wild, which follows the same format, ie, an arcade 'Action' tape with four levels to be got through before you are given the running code to play the adventure tape. The scenario is set in 1972 and our intergalactic enemies (fed up with all those Tie Fighters and laser bases) are posing as a funfair. Before you imagine our intergalactic enemy as a hundred and fifty foot high Big Wheel with people going round in him, be aware that they are posing as funfair people and are placing hypnotic playing cards in 'bunko booths' to capture people's souls. 'You' and Captain Phoenix have been summoned back from the future to lock the hypnotic cards in a lead-lined security box. From there you must find the time vortex that is holding our enemies in the space time continuum of earth 1972. The arcade tape presents a screen of forty squares surrounding a long black edged box in the centre. This latter is the lead-lined security area. The four corner squares contain four playing cards, one of each suit. All the squares (or rooms) are connected by doorways in a varying arrangement, so you can't just zip from one to the other. Those rooms without a playing card have various coloured keys in them, only a few with black ones. You can't enter a room with a playing card in it unless you have picked up a black key. Only one card at a time may be deposited in the vault. On the first level there is one chaser - an alien Knave, on the second level there are two, three on the third and four on the fourth. Between each level cleared you are given some clues which will be vital to you during the adventure part, and after the fourth level has been cleared you will be given the code without which the loaded adventure will not run. COMMENTS Control keys: A/S left/right, K/M up/down Joystick: none Keyboard play: very fast and responsive Colour good Graphics: large, well detailed and fast Sound: well used - pity about the Death March Skill levels: progressive difficulty Lives: 5

Bunko booths galore in Jokers Wild.