Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes

Your Spectrum

Frank Pelling MISS

Ian Hemmingway HIT

Monty Trent MISS

JOYSTICK JURY Your Spectrum is on the lookout for clubs to take part in Joystick Jury. Interested??? Just drop a line to Ron Smith, Joystick Jury, Your Spectrum, [redacted]. This month's joystick jurors are all members of the Stevenage Computer Club, [redacted]. They are: Ian Hemmingway, Phil Morse, Frank Pelling, Owen Pugh and Monty Trent. The club was formed about 18 months ago and currently has a membership of about 45, with members' ages ranging from eight to 70 years. It meets twice a month - at the Stevenage Library and the Leisure Centre. Membership costs £6 per year... half price for children and OAPs. For more details, phone Frank Pelling on [redacted] (evenings and weekends). REVENGE OF THE KILLER TOMATOES Visions £6.95 Meanwhile, back on the vegetable patch, help the market gardener to escape from the killer tomatoes, manic mushrooms and psycho swedes.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 6/10

Richard Price 6/10

Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 Joystick: Kempston Vegetarians may be deeply disturbed by the warped concept of Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes, from Visions. Set in a rapidly-mutating market garden, the game features crazed tomatoes, psychotic swedes, manic mushrooms and mobile cabbages, all of which cause Smiffy, the weeder, a pile of grief. To earn pay and points the player must steer Smiffy between the moving furrows of cabbages and grab the weeds which are around. Every time Smiffy treads on a cabbage he loses points. Meantime the screwy salad items float about the screen, chasing the gardener. They kill on contact. There are 10 levels of difficulty, customised keyboard movement and the option of Kempston joystick. The main point in the game is the movement, as weeds appear relatively infrequently. Evading the moving lines of cabbage is similar to the Frogger style of play and the rampaging vegetables are like heavy traffic, though they will divert frequently to chase Smiffy. At lower levels of play the evasion portions are a little dull but the action develops into more complexity on higher levels.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 81%

Graphics 78%

Playability 77%

Getting Started 75%

Addictive Qualities 70%

Value For Money 65%

Overall 74%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Visions Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £6.95 Language: Machine code Author: Kevin Bezant Visions describe this game as a 'Video Nasty' - a game which gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, meat and two veg. The meat in this case is Visions' dashing young hero Smiffy, who appeared in the computer complex of 1994. He is now enjoying a much quieter occupation - cultivating the soil. But in this garden the rows of cabbages move all over the place and it is infested with killer tomatoes (make sure they don't ketch-up with you), psycho swedes (no xenophobia intended) and manic mushrooms (no reference to any other game intended). Scoring is done by awarding points for every weed pulled, completing a day's work and points are docked for treading on the cabbages. The screen display is very uncluttered with no score lines or other info visible - this gives a large playing area, which takes the form of six rows of large cabbages by four rows across. Alternate lines move in opposing directions. Weeds, blue in colour, appear at random points and times, also moving along with the cabbages. The killer veg moves independently, but bounces off the cabbages. Between attack waves the display informs you of what to expect next. Game instructions and objectives are well displayed on several sheets which can be called up from the menu. COMMENTS Control keys: user-definable - requires four directional keys Joystick: Almost any via UDK, plus ZX1 and ZX2 interfaces Keyboard play: self-selected, very responsive Use of colour: clear, but limited, nicely used in instructions Graphics: very good, smooth and detailed Sound: average Skill levels: 10 Lives: 5 Originality: nothing else like it on the market

Smiffy gives up the computers for gardening - but is it a wise decision?

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 7/10

Sound 6/10

Originality 5/10

Lasting Interest 4/10

Overall 5/10

Peter Connor 5/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K CONTROL: Keys, Kemp FROM: Visions, £5.95 This is a game with a scenario like one of those awful old horror films that some people like to watch on TV when they're too tired to go to bed. The cast features killer tomatoes, manic mushrooms and psycho swedes, all gunning for the hero Smiffy. He's a humble lad who's trying to make a living by pulling up the weeds in a cabbage patch. He earns £100 per weed, but loses £25 if he accidentally uproots a cabbage. The first screen is a display of green cabbages on a black background. Smiffy's very nicely animated figure strolls round the scrolling landscape trying to get the weeds which sporadically appear. But he also has to avoid the grim-looking tomatoes who'll chew him up given half a chance. It's not too difficult as they are pretty dumb fruit. When Smiffy's first day's work is done he goes back to face the additional problem of those psycho swedes. These are of a similar rotund shape but are yellow and look much happier with their lot in life. However, they're no more intelligent and don't pose too much of a problem. Neither do the purple manic mushrooms which are the next hazard, although they do seem to have a little more grey matter. Revenge is graphically very attractive and the scrolling is exceptionally smooth. Control is easy with the user-defined keys. There are ten skill levels and some good sound effects. But the game is disappointing because there is not enough for you to do. Even at the fastest levels you're still waiting to be excited.