Loco

Your Sinclair

Graphics 5/10

Playability 6/10

Value For Money 6/10

Addictiveness 5/10

Overall 6/10

Rick Robson 6/10

Alligata £1.99 Reviewer: Rick Robson Alligata's latest romp is a split screen arcade based on an idea from an old Frank Sinatra movie. You must drive your train across enemy territory, taking on fuel along the way. And it's your job to blow up exploding handcarts as well as avoiding bombs dropped from passing planes and airships. The lower screen is a map of rail lines (looking remarkably like my mother's varicose veins) which shows the dumps and where you must change the points to re-fuel. It also displays your position relative to the planes (which sneak up from behind) and the carts (which come head on). You repel the planes with smoke and the carts with steam. Much of the information, though, is irrelevent, 'cos unless you've got the reflexes of a three-toed sloth both adversaries can be zapped on visual contact in the upper screen. In fact the enemy is so slow that simple manic thrashing of the joystick will allow you to zap everything in sight, maintain all your lives and get you through the five levels of difficulty. Still, it is only aimed at nine year olds and above and it's great fun to pretend you're Casey Jones at the throttle. Well, I enjoyed it anyway.

Crash

Presentation 54%

Graphics 48%

Playability 57%

Addictiveness 40%

Value For Money 51%

Overall 44%

Ben Stone

Mike Dunn

Paul Sumner

Producer: Alligata Retail Price: £1.99 Author: R Stevenson and N Speight A steam-train journey is rudely interrupted by the outbreak of war, and the locomotive is in deadly danger. Taking the controls, it's up to you to guide the engine along a five-track railway, avoiding hazards and trying to hang on to your three lives for as long as possible. The main screen gives a side view of the train as it progresses, with the background scrolling from right to left at a constant rate. Enemy planes zoom in for a low-level pass, emptying their payload of bombs in your direction. Runaway carts rumble down the track towards the loco and explode on contact, while airships hover in the sky attempting to drop bombs onto the roof of the engine. Evasive action is out of the question - the screen scroll forces the pace. Trouble was obviously anticipated by the railway company, as the locomotive is not defenceless. Puffs of smoke can be released from the smoke stack to destroy falling bombs or blind enemy pilots, while the explosive trucks can be destroyed by firing blasts of steam from the front of the engine. Points are awarded for dealing death to the enemy and for blowing up trucks. A long-range radar display occupies the bottom of the screen, and warns of dangers lurking further along the track. The fuel available is monitored on a bar to the right of the screen: the engine loses steam and grinds to a halt when the coal runs out, becoming a defenceless target. Coal dumps are scattered around the network of sidings, and it's possible to change the points and move onto a branch line to pick up supplies when you come to a junction. COMMENTS Control keys: Q up and A down at points; P release steam, SPACE release smoke Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2 Use of colour: basic, with some clash Graphics: fair detail, but simplistic Sound: the occasional spot effect Skill levels: one Screens: five scrolling levels

An airship hovers menacingly above your engine.

Wheeee! A chunky bomb falls from the belly of an enemy plane. Get ready with that smokestack, Casey...