Robber

Crash

Overall 48%

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K £5.95 (1) Author: Keith Mitchell This is a 3-part game. In the first section you must cross a room to 2 Cupboards and collect a doorkey and a stethoscope. A guard moves about with a torch and you are caught if you appear in his beam. There's also a safe key hidden in the room. Getting through this dumps you onto a collapsing bridge with spikes beneath. The third part is a maze where you must swim under water, avoiding fish and get out before your oxygen runs out, then cross an invisible maze avoiding man-eating birds, get through narrow passages avoiding the bouncing balls, and lastly a maze which disappears as soon as you've seen it. Sounds exciting but it isn't. This is a good sketch for a much better game. The inlay instructions are incorrect and the game has a tendency to freeze terminally at odd times. Primitive graphics and unresponsive control don't help. Poor. CRASH rating overall 48%. Compiled M/C.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

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. ROBBER Virgin Games £5.95 An original idea that involves you in stealing the loot, and avoiding the searchlight as it scans the screen.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Crash

Overall 48%

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K £5.95 (1) Author: Keith Mitchell This is a 3-part game. In the first section you must cross a room to 2 Cupboards and collect a doorkey and a stethoscope. A guard moves about with a torch and you are caught if you appear in his beam. There's also a safe key hidden in the room. Getting through this dumps you onto a collapsing bridge with spikes beneath. The third part is a maze where you must swim under water, avoiding fish and get out before your oxygen runs out, then cross an invisible maze avoiding man-eating birds, get through narrow passages avoiding the bouncing balls, and lastly a maze which disappears as soon as you've seen it. Sounds exciting but it isn't. This is a good sketch for a much better game. The inlay instructions are incorrect and the game has a tendency to freeze terminally at odd times. Primitive graphics and unresponsive control don't help. Poor. CRASH rating overall 48%. Compiled M/C.

Crash

Use of Computer 50%

Graphics 45%

Playability 43%

Getting Started 65%

Addictive Qualities 50%

Value For Money 35%

Overall 48%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Virgin Games Memory Required: 48K Recommended Retail Price: £5.95 Language: machine code compiled Author: Keith Mitchell Robber is subtitled, 'A 3-part criminal escapade to warn you off a lifetime of crime!' According to one of our reviewers they should have warned you off Robber. In many respects this game is a good sketch for a much better presentation at a later date. THIS IS WHAT YOU DO There are really three screens in this game, although the second contains four different sections. The first screen depicts a large room with two L-shaped cupboards in it. You're at the bottom right, a chess pawn shaped thing. In the two cupboards are a door key and a stethoscope. A third and vital object is the hidden safe key (why a stethoscope?) This safe key only becomes momentarily visible in the beam from the guards torch. He's at the right of screen, moving erratically up and down. If you get caught in the beam you're nicked. Having collected the three objects you proceed to the second screen, a two-part collapsing and reappearing bridge, which you must cross without falling to your death on the spikes below. Once across, the third screen presents you with a simple maze; first section under water, infested with poisonous jelly fish (watch the falling oxygen rating), second part through a dark room where you can't see the path of the maze, and infested with man-eating birds; third part a narrow corridor with deadly bouncing balls; and lastly a maze which disappears as soon as you see it, so it must be memorised. The whole thing takes places against a timer on the safe which shuts off the whole complex, trapping you if you're not quick enough. GENERAL The instructions on the inlay say Z/A for up/down and Q/W for left/right. They're wrong. It's actually Z/X for left/right and K/M for up/down. Objects are collected by moving onto them. One of the reviewers noted a serious problem, not so much of crashing the program as terminally freezing it. Twice in a row it froze on hitting the Z key and had to be reloaded. COMMENTS Keyboard positions: sensible Joystick options: none Keyboard play: very slow Use of colour: average Graphics: fair Sound: hardly any