Mazeman

Sinclair User

PAC-MAN HITS THE SINCLAIR SCENE Pac-man the colourful chomping video game from the US, has hit the Sinclair scene with a vengeance. Not content with having a book and even a hit record about it,no fewer than three companies have developed versions for the 16K ZX-81. The DIL Software Zuckman is written in 10K of machine code and has all the addictive features of the original within the limitations posed by the ZX-81 character set. You are the gobble-man ("0") being chased by the ghosts - inverse commas - as you make your way round the 29x21 maze, eating the dots in your path. One of the reasons for the enormous popularity of Pac-man is the way he hunter can be eaten by the game; if you eat one of the four corner "energy posts", the ghosts change their appearance and you can then chase them and win a bonus if you catch them. You have to be careful, as, after a few seconds, they revert to their old nasty selves. DJL made an unusual choice of keys for movement - Q and P for left and right, M and X for up and down - but the knack can soon be acquired. Zuckman costs £5.95 from DJL Software, 9 Tweed Close, Swindon, Wiltshire. In the Babtech Zedman, you are a mouse in a 19x19 maze; the standard cursor controls are used for movement. The four ghosts move from the central area one after another and roam the maze in search of their prey. Eating the dollar signs in the corners makes the ghosts edible for a short time but Babtech warns that they are slippery creatures and may pass you if you rush at them. You have three lives but if you find it all too easy you have 10 skill levels from which to choose to keep you on your toes. The 4K machine code Zedman is complete with Spacers, an invaders-type program, giving two arcade games for £5.95. Babtech is at 3, [redacted]. The third Pac-man lookalike is the Abersoft Mazeman, which also uses the standard cursor controls, this time on a 30x20 maze. Once the mazeman starts moving he continues until he hits a wall or you change his direction. The ghosts have four possible shapes; A means it is its own normal unpleasant and dangerous self, moving randomly round the maze; B means you have eaten a corner "power capsule" and the ghosts are vulnerable; inverse B means they are about to turn nasty again. Written in 5K of machine code, the game also provides an extra mazeman if you score 10,000 points. Mazeman costs £4.45 from Abersoft, [redacted].