Arcade Action

Sinclair User

PLENTY OF 1K ACTION Fighting space invaders, being a spacefighter pilot and zipping around a Pac-man maze are just three of the delights on the Micromega Arcade Action cassette for the 1K ZX-81. There are five games on the cassette. The first is Overtaker. The title gives a clue to what you have to do. You are a racing driver and have to overtake the slower cars on the track. The speeds your supercharged car can attain are amazing, even if you take into account that the program is written in machine code. The second game is Missile Man. You are in charge of a missile battery in space. With your weapons you must destroy the usual enemy Invaders. Spacefighter Pilot is the third game on the tape. You must protect your mothership from enemy guns which are firing into space from the planet surface below. Pac-man had to poke its nose in somewhere. Greedy Gobbler is the fourth in the series. The controls are difficult to master, as they are set out like a keyboard joystick. When your fingers are positioned on the keypad defined by the program you will have difficulty in hitting the start key. The final program is named after a rather too-well-known alien, Extra Terrestrial. The aliens may seem like ETs but they are intent on destroying a map of the world. The unnerving thing about the game is that you are the nasty alien but if you are of a sadistic turn of mind you may derive some pleasure from the destruction. Arcade ACIion is excellent value. It can be obtained from Quantec Systems and Software Ltd, [redacted]. The cassette costs £4.95.