Paws

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

Chris Bourne 4/5

Publisher: Artic Price: £6.95 Memory: 48K Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Sinclair In the June issue of Sinclair User we reviewed Cats from Artic, a super little maze game based on the alleged musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber. There were in fact problems we didn't notice. In the first place, the game wasn't going to be called Cats after all because Artic failed to obtain the rights to the theme from Andrew Lloyd Wallet. Secondly, the version we saw was an early development version, and very much easier than the final game was ever intended to be. You have to travel a giant Sabre Wulf-style maze searching for your 10 lost kittens, and hunting down or avoiding the bully dogs who prowl the midnight streets. You're armed with fur-balls and stun powder which knocks out the dogs for a short time. Food and ammunition for the fur balls is dotted all around the maze. The game is certainly a challenge in the final version, and very difficult to beat, even on the easiest of five levels. The graphics are colourful and the theme effective.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Your Computer

Overall 3/5

Spectrum Artic Maze Game £7.95 Just when you thought it was safe to change the cat tray - Artic have come back into the games market, in this setting of feline ferocity, you as the top cat have to get all your kittens together before the local dogs attempt a final solution to the caterwauling problem. So you scour the maze looking for the little ones and battling with any dogs you encounter You can despatch canines by spitting fur balls at them. Not as pretty as Caesar the Cat but might appeal to Spectrum owners whose cats sit on the machine because it is the warmest place in the house.

Your Spectrum

Rick Robson 3/5 HIT

Roger Willis 2/5 HIT

Ross Holman 2/5 HIT

JOYSTICK JURY Have we got some great software lined up for you! But first a surprise - the hairy hacker is taking his annual rest (he calls it that 'cos it usually lasts a year!) so we welcome a new joystick juror to the bench, Rick Robson. Now join the three Rs - Rick, Roger Willis and Ross Holman as they find out where the arcade action is! What's the score? Well, the marks out of five at the end of each review is a shorthand way of summing up what each reviewer thought of the game. But will it be a commercial success? For that you'll have to check out the HIT and MISS system. Simple, eh? PAWS Artic £6.95 Rick: You've got to be a keen mouser to find your way round this maze game for moggy lovers everywhere. Mamma cat has to round up her lost kittens before nightfall when the bully dogs get together and make mince pies of the moggyettes. On the way, you can slay the strays with gobs of fluff balls (charming! Ed) or engage in a little feline fisticuffs. But beware your dropping catoplexic energy level. At times I was more confused than amazed but then I have trouble following the tube map. At one point I became catatonic and popped out to see a man about a dog! (OK, that's enough cat and dog jokes unless it starts raining in the game. Ed). The constant need for referral to the map doesn't help the game go with a flow but aids the feline feats without strain on the brain. The scrolling Sabrewulf type maze has some gorgeous graphics ranging from Basildonesque shopping centre to litter strewn inner city. Mama cat might have more luck powing the pooches if she didn't have to rely on a diet of fish bones and dustbin dregs to replenish her energy/stamina levels. Our Ginger only eats Tesco's best - I asked him what he thought of the game: no cat-astrophe but not purrfect, he mewed. Reckon I could get him a job on YS?

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Crash

Use of Computer 73%

Graphics 75%

Getting Started 74%

Addictive Qualities 77%

Value For Money 71%

Overall 78%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Artic Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £6.95 Language: Machine code Author: Various Before you jump up and down in fits of excitement proclaiming that this game was reviewed months ago, in another Spectrum mag (which, for the sake of your health at least, you should not be reading) we should point out that the other mag is better known for being rash at the expense of accuracy. CRASH at least decided to wait until Artic had settled on a name for the game. Paws is about a poor little cat called Selwyn who is being harassed by Bull Dog Billy and his gang of Bully dogs. Up until now, nasty old Billy has never managed to rid his patch of Selwyn because the cat and kittens were protected by catoplexic energy, a force generated by them as a whole. Well, imagine Selwyn's surprise when he returns home to find that the kittens have strayed. 'Oh this is awful', cries Selwyn, 'without the kittens we are no longer protected from the dogs and when they get to hear of this they will be after me again'. Well it goes without saying that Billy hears the news and barks an order to one of his lackies, 'Gruff', says he, 'round up the boys and we can get rid of those cats for ever'. Your task is to guide Selwyn round the maze of city streets, the suburbs and refuse tips, collecting the kittens one by one and returning them to the haven. As you wander the lonely paths you are bound to come across the dogs. You can attack by firing fur balls at them, or even paralyse them for a while by depositing a noxious substance in their path. If you do get caught by a dog them a paw-paw fight will follow and that will cost you a great deal of energy. Your stamina, needed for the fur balls, and energy can be built up by eating different objects as you make you way around the maze, but the more you travel the maze the rarer the food becomes. With ten kittens to recover you face a race against time: soon the dogs will form a pack, and then watch the doggies get the moggies. To help you with your task the game provides a map of the maze giving the locations of the kittens, the dogs, home and of course Selwyn. Underneath the main screen your score and high score are displayed, together with the levels of stamina, energy and the number of lives remaining. You lose a life when you run out of energy and if you are carrying a kitten you will lose that as well. The last figure on the screen gives the 'K9' level, this is a measure of pack formation and is, in effect, the time period in which you must collect the kittens. The five different skill settings simply give five different pack gathering rates. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/A up/down, O/P left/right, bottom row to fire Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair and cursor Keyboard play: fine Use of colour: very good Graphics: pleasingly detailed Sound: a little garish Skill levels: five Lives: nine (of course) Screens: over 150

Furball in mid-flight, Tibbles fights back in PAWS.

Seeing off Fido, the action packed cat zooms down a High Street in PAWS.

The map screen from PAWS, showing where you are, where you should be and the route you need - it's up to you to get there, past the marauding doggies.

Sinclair Programs

Rating 46%

Colette McDermott 46%

PRICE: £6.95 GAME TYPE: Maze It is the night of the Jellicle ball. Tonight the leader of all Cats, Deuteronomy, will choose one of the cats to be reborn into a new life. Two problems face Deuteronomy this year. The first is that ten kittens have strayed and must be collected. The second is that the cats' bitterest enemies, the Pollicle Dogs, have stolen the source of the Jellicle cats' power. Now they intend to form a pack and destroy it altogether. Deuteronomy must make his way through the maze of woodland, town and scrapyard, destroy the dogs, collect the kittens and eat enough food to maintain his strength. This task is made easy by the introduction of a maze plan which can be viewed at any time. This shows the position of all cats, dogs and kittens and allows efficient routes to be planned quickly and easily. In line with tradition, Deuteronomy has nine lives. This allows plenty of time to complete all tasks, save the Jellicle cats and defeat the Pollicle dogs. Cats would prove a good maze game for a newcomer to maze games, or for the exceptionally fumble-fingered. Experienced players will find it too easy to represent any sort of challenge. Produced for the 48K Spectrum by Artic Computing, [redacted].

Sinclair User

Overall 3/5

Chris Bourne 3/5

Publisher: Artic Price: £6.95 Memory: 48K Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor Meet Deuteronomy, leader of the Jellicle cats in T S Eliot's poems and Andrew Lloyd Wallet's musical. The cats' enemies, the Pollicle dogs, have hidden an object known, for some reason, as the Heavyside Layer. It is the focus of the cats mystic powers, and the dogs intend to destroy it - if they can form a pack. Meanwhile ten kittens have strayed off the astral staircase and must be collected and returned to the Heavyside Layer. The whole heady brew of witchcraft and whiskers boils down to a basic Sabre Wulf style maze game. The playing area is very large, and a map is provided which can be consulted at will. The map shows the positions of dogs and kittens, thus enabling you to work out the best routes. Deuteronomy deals death in the form of fur-balls and carries stun powder. The graphics are well-designed and attractive. The animation tends to be slow, particularly if you want to keep the sound effects, a wailing rendition of Memory. Cats would be a sweet little number full of fun and novelty if it was not for one thing - the game is too easy. It was a good idea to allow sight of the map, but a time limit on that might be appropriate. Deuteronomy starts off with too many stamina points so that, with the obligatory nine lives, he can easily afford to die and come back with a full complement of strength. When 24 dogs are in the den the pack is formed and you lose. Again, even at the highest level, using a couple of lives to exterminate dogs should even the odds sufficiently to give you time to complete your task. We managed to play straight through all five levels for a grand total of 7953025 points. No game ought to be that easy, surely?

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online