Barreldrop

Crash

Overall 65%

Producer: Games Machine, 48K £5.95 (1) Author: Russell Vincent Starring Gordon and Flash, Barreldrop is a games compendium. Gordon suffers from blocked drainpipes - at least his house does. He cures this affliction by the curious method of rolling large barrels down the sloping roof and letting them fail through the blocked pipes. He only has five barrels and it's important they fall exactly down the centre of each pipe. If they don't he loses the barrel for good. Fortunately his faithful dog Flash is on hand sometimes and if called in time, the dog will recover the barrel and return it for another go. Clearing all five pipes successfully results in another screen which may be anything from a riddle to guess to an arcade shoot em up sequence. It's quite an original idea, in which nothing is too difficult, and yet there's so much that it becomes very difficult to get through. Playable and fun, good value, no joystick options. Overall CRASH rating 65% M/C.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Crash

Overall 65%

Producer: Games Machine, 48K £5.95 (1) Author: Russell Vincent Starring Gordon and Flash, Barreldrop is a games compendium. Gordon suffers from blocked drainpipes - at least his house does. He cures this affliction by the curious method of rolling large barrels down the sloping roof and letting them fail through the blocked pipes. He only has five barrels and it's important they fall exactly down the centre of each pipe. If they don't he loses the barrel for good. Fortunately his faithful dog Flash is on hand sometimes and if called in time, the dog will recover the barrel and return it for another go. Clearing all five pipes successfully results in another screen which may be anything from a riddle to guess to an arcade shoot em up sequence. It's quite an original idea, in which nothing is too difficult, and yet there's so much that it becomes very difficult to get through. Playable and fun, good value, no joystick options. Overall CRASH rating 65% M/C.

Your Spectrum

Corrie Brown

Peter Shaw

Stewart McPherson

SPECTRUM SOFT Starting this issue Your Spectrum will be touring computer clubs up and down the country in an effort to find dedicated games enthusiasts who will give us their impressions, thoughts and feelings on the current selection of new releases. Little do they know it, but these unsuspecting souls will be contributing a large slice of our regular review section in the future. This month we visited the Stanwell Computer Club (which meets weekly at the Stanwell School, Short Lane, every Friday evening from 7-10pm). Five of the resident 'freaks' were enlisted to tell us (and you) what was good or bad about the programs we gave them to play around with. In some cases comment was justifiably harsh, and in others they could hardly contain their glee at coming across a really well thought-out game. The guinea-pig five whose comments appear below, are all members of the club, and they are (in alphabetical order): Corrie Brown, Stephen Cathrall, Ryan Davis, Stewart McPherson and Peter Shaw. Peter, by the way, is also Secretary of the Stanwell Club. Them we do thank. BARREL DROP Games Machine £5.95 You have to catch barrels as they drop from the top of the screen, aided only by your dog. Your name is Flash and the dog's name is Gordon - shouldn't it be the other way round?

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 6/10

Sound 6/10

Ease Of Use 4/10

Originality 4/10

Lasting Interest 4/10

Overall 4/10

David Janda 4/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K JOYSTICK: No CATEGORY: Arcade SUPPLIER: Games Machine Ltd PRICE: £5.95 Barreldrop is, presumably, an arcade game with educational overtones - the cassette inlay shows a teacher and blackboard, and I suppose the game is designed to give very young children an idea of numbers and words. As such, it is not altogether successful. Barreldrop features a character called Gordon and his dog, Flash (geddit?). Gordon stands on a ledge at the top of the screen and rolls barrels down the roof of his house. Pressing SPACE at the right moment allows the barrels to drop into a set of drainpipes, numbered one to five. At various times during the game. It is possible to discern Gordon's dog peeping out from the right-hand corner. If you realise that you are about to miss your target, pressing 'D' will send Flash scampering across the screen to retrieve the errant barrel and bring it back up the ladder for another go. Filling all the drainpipes brings a bonus, and there are various riddles and other games included. The riddles are of the 'What has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?' variety, but there is no acknowledgment as to whether they have been answered correctly or not. Attention to detail is not all that it should be. either. Writer Russell Vincent has included a routine to speed up the auto-repeat while playing the game, but this remains in operation even when the user is invited to type in his/her name, which means that a very light touch is needed to avoid letters repeating. For very young children only.

Crash

Use of Computer 65%

Graphics 65%

Playability 70%

Getting Started 68%

Addictive Qualities 54%

Value For Money 68%

Overall 65%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Games Machine Memory Required: 48K Recommended Retail Price: £5.95 Language: machine code Author: Russel Vincent Barreldrop takes its name from what might be called the chorus line of this game. The two heroes are Gordon and Flash but there's no Ming in this epic! Gordon has blocked drainpipes, five of them in fact, and he's discovered a rather novel way of clearing them. He stands on the roof with five barrels, rolls them down the incline and tries to get them to fall down the blocked pipes. How on earth this is supposed to clear them, goodness knows! However, it seems to do the trick. Unfortunately if he doesn't get the barrel exactly down the centre of a pipe it gets lost. Successful rolls are returned to him for another go. This is where Flash comes in. He's a dog who appears round the corner - sometimes. If he's visible and Gordon misplaces a barrel Flash will rescue it and return it up the ladder to him. Successfully clearing a screen results in another event, sometimes a riddle sometimes an arcade episode like getting Gordon safely across a floor in which some of the tiles are electrified. If you manage this, it's back to the chorus line again and more barrels to roll, more drains to be cleared. COMMENTS Keyboard positions: vary between sections, but generally sensible Joystick options: none Keyboard play: very responsive Use of colour: very good, all colours used Graphics: detailed, reasonably smooth Sound: good Screens: many Lives: 1

'Where's the damned dog?'