Cassette 3

ZX Computing

James Walsh

MICHAEL ORWIN WINS AGAIN From Loughton, 15-year-old James Walsh puts Orwin's Cassette Three through its electronic paces... and likes what he sees. Eight programs on one cassette? Sounds ominous, last time I got one of these, the programs were so poor that they could have been copied out of the manual. Well, could this be different? The first program is called "STARSHIP TROJAN" and the idea is that your starship is damaged and you have to repair it before becoming asphyxiated, dying of radiation, plunging into a supernova or some other gruesome death. The graphics on this are quite good, but the actual program was a bit slow for me. The second game is called 'STAR TREK' (original!!!). This is a good version of the well known (you said it) space game. Again because it was in BASIC I found it a bit slow but if you do not mind waiting around a little you may find it very good. The next program is called "PRINCESS OF KRAAL". Quite predictably this is another adventure game - well it is not just another! With a visual map, different levels and a whole host of dangers, let alone 100 different difficulty levels, it makes for a very addictive game. The idea of 'MARTIAN CRICKET' is to get from one side of the screen to the other without hitting the balls being constantly hurled at you. Though this game is simple it also becomes addictive. Of the remaining four games the one that caught my eye first was "KALABRIASZ" which is quoted as being the worlds silliest card game, and it lives up to it's name! Next comes CUBE which is a very well written simulation program of that dreaded mind-bender. Coming a very close seventh an eighth are BATTLE and SECRET MESSAGE, both of which I found reasonably good. CONCLUSION I cannot comment on the documentation as I did not receive any. But I am assured that it is about six A4 pages long and comprehensive (it would have to be for some of these games). Altogether it is a well produced, good value for money cassette with eight very good to mediocre games on it.