Gamestape 1

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 7/10

Chris Bourne 7/10

FOUR FROM FAWKES Memory: 16K Price: £5.95 Games Compendiums are usually poor value for money - if a game is not good enough to stand on its own then it is probably not worth buying as part of a tape with four or five such mediocre programs. Gamestape One from Fawkes Computing is, however, an honourable exception. Four games are provided, all for the ZX-81 16K, and although none are earth-shattering in concept or programming, they are all of a reasonable standard, and represent excellent value for money at £5.95 for the lot. The first game, Dodge-it, is a variant of the elderly arcade game Racer in which you had to drive a car around a series of concentric tracks eating up dots and avoiding other cars. Dodge-it replaces cars with monsters and includes four different speed levels, from easy to suicidal. The fastest rate is vile. There is also a strawberry which appears at random and which provides bonus points if you pass over it, though the gap left by the strawberry can be used by the monster chasing you, which renders the game increasingly difficult the more bonuses you acquire. In Trojan Dragon you are the defender of a castle which is under attack by an evil wizard. The wizard sends his men in two directions - some try to get into the castle through the drawbridge, others climb the back of a presumably wooden dragon to storm the battlements. While all that is going on, your own reinforcements are trying to enter, and you must open and lower the drawbridge to let them pass while making the bad guys fall in the moat. At the same time you must keep an eye on the battlements and fire arrows at the invaders. The combination of action at the top and bottom of the screen makes Trojan Dragon a hard game to play even at the easiest of the three levels. Instead of increasing the speed of the game, the higher levels of Trojan Dragon make it difficult to distinguish friend from foe. It is the weakest game of the quartet, but nevertheless enjoyable and competently written. Death Trap is an arcade-strategy game, in which you move round the screen attempting to avoid the black squares which the computer fills in adjacent to you. Eventually you will be trapped and must pass onto a black square, so the secret is to try to ensure that there is plenty of white space all over the screen. You can also create your own maze as you play. While it is clearly the simplest of the four games, and easy enough to program in Basic, Death Trap is a fast, all-machine-code game with two skill and three speed levels, and requires both strategic thought and quick reactions to survive for long. Finally, a full text adventure is provided, The Tablets of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was the first 'modern' doctor, and his lost tablets are supposed to contain a cure for cancer. It is your task to find them, using the usual two-word commands as you explore forest clearings, underground passages, and a cathedral. With about 35 locations the adventure is not of great length. The problems, however, are difficult and ZX-81 adventure buffs will no doubt be grateful for a new challenge. Although the size of the game is limited by the use of Basic, there have been so few adventures released in recent months for the machine that any competently written program is welcome. Indeed, the ZX-81 is better suited to adventures than to arcade games, and large adventures can be squeezed in using machine-code and compression techniques. If Spectrum programmers can fit in over 200 locations then ZX-81 writers should be able to manage at least 70. Gamestape One is good value for money and presents a thoughtful variety of games with something to please everyone. It can be obtained from Fawkes Computing, [redacted].

ZX Computing

Nick Pearce

THE ZX81 SOFT SELECTION Nick Pearce gives us his critical views on some of the latest ZX81 software. GAMESTAPE 1 Fawkes Computing There are four good quality games on this cassette; Dodge-it and Trogan Dragon on the A side and Death Trap and Tablets of Hippocrates on the reverse. Dodge-it is a variation of the hungry blob-type game. Your character moves anticlockwise following lanes around the screen. Your only control is to change lanes when you reach gaps by the use of the cursor keys. True to tradition you consume dots and leave crumbs. The second time you travel the same lane you eat crumbs and leave dots and so on. There is also a strawberry which, if eaten, gives you extra points and, of course, the inevitable monster which travels clockwise around the lanes and must be avoided. This is an unusual but effective game in which your character is always on the move. You cannot reverse direction to escape the monster - once you are in the same lane that's it. Good fun to play but frustratingly difficult to judge which lane to cross to at the next gap. Dodge-it has four speed levels from learner to expert and a high score feature. In Trojan Dragon the programmer has taken some liberties with popular legend to produce an interesting game. The problem is that you have to guard your castle at two positions simultaneously. You control the drawbridge but must only allow "goodies" across and the swordsmen on the battlements must only kill "baddies" . The difficulty is in recognisinig goodies and baddies as they approach these positions so that appropriate action can be taken. An interesting idea is in the way the game is made more difficult for the experienced player; at the harder levels of play the goodies and baddies are represented by characters which more closely resemble each other. There is also a choice of speed but the speed increases automatically as the game progresses and action can become frenetic. A very good game which gets exciting as the goodies and baddies approach in ever increasing numbers. Death Trap, on the reverse side of the cassette is a game in which you move your character around the screen in an attempt to avoid being boxed in by the computer. A rather pedestrian game which nevertheless works well. Dodge-it, Trojan Dragon and Death Trap are all 100% machine code games. The final game on the cassette, Tablets of Hippocrates, is a BASIC program and is a role playing adventure with some 30 locations set in an enchanted forest. Your object is to get the two valuable Tablets hidden deep within the forest. Hazards abound and the forest contains such horrors as a tunnel of death, chamber of echoes and devils rock. An imaginative game, not unduly difficult and a good introduction to adventuring for the beginner. Romik Software, [redacted]. Mikro-Gen, [redacted]. Software Farm, [redacted]. Fawkes Computing, [redacted]

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 5/10

Sound None

Originality 4/10

Lasting Interest 4/10

Overall 4/10

David Janda 4/10

GAME: Gamestape One MACHINE: ZX81 + 16K JOYSTICK: No SUPPLIER: Fawkes Computing PRICE: £4.95 This offering from Fawkes Computing has four games on it: three in machine code and one in good old Basic. The games are Dodge It, Trojan Dragon, Death Trap and Tablets of Hippocrates. Death Trap is a variant of Dodgems. The difference is that there are dots (a la Pac-Man) which you must eat on your travels. Eating the dots leaves crumbs which can only be eaten when all the dots are cleared. A strawberry earns you some bonus points. The game itself is OK, but unlike many versions you can't accelerate to avoid a possible clash. What you can do is switch to any lane at a clearing, but the monster can only change by one lane at a time. The next best game is Trojan Dragon, where you control a drawbridge and a man with a sword. Here, you must stop the baddies from getting into the castle, but let the goodies in. Both can come from the bottom of the screen to the drawbridge or be carried up the Dragon's back. The game offers different levels of difficulty, and the game gets faster as it goes on. Good fun. The last two games, Death Trap and Tablets of Hippocrates are not fun at all. Dead boring would be a better description. In Death Trap, you are a blob trying to avoid being boxed in by other blobs, and in Tablets (an excuse for an adventure), you have to 'find the cure for cancer'. Unfortunately, Gamestape One from Fawkes Computing is below the normal standard you would expect from a gamestape, and I suggest you shop elsewhere.