B.C. Bill

Your Spectrum

David Lester 4/5 HIT

Roger Willis 3/5 HIT

Ron Smith 3/5 HIT

JOYSTICK JURY Success in the charts doesn't always mean it's the best game around. Check out the thoughts of our jury this month - Ron Smith, Roger Willis and David Lester - and you'll see what we mean... BC BILL Imagine/Bo Jolly £5.50 Roger: The fallen empire of Imagine Software bears guilt for BC Bill's creation; Imagine may be 'the name of the game', like it says on the packet, but whoever wrote this didn't exactly apply a vast amount of imagination to this sample of Stone Age programming. Maybe everyone was too busy winding up the company to notice what the programmers were doing... The game is essentially lightweight stuff involving a primitive character who looks and behaves like your average Liverpool or Everton supporter - probably Imagine's way of introducing a little local colour. Bill, under player control, has to scuttle about a primeval landscape, clubbing wives and collecting food, before dragging the goodies back to his cave. An ever-increasing number of children, resulting from the collected and nourished wives, complicate matters as do the carnivorous (news to me!) dinosaurs dropping in for lunch. Well, it's obvious it's going to be a success - everyone loves a good old dinosaur... you only have to see how many people settle down to watch that load of old tott One Million Years BC each time the BBC repeat it. For me though, there wasn't enough going on - I spent the first few games just trying to find another screen (having got bored with the first fairly quickly); needless to say there isn't one - equally needless to say, it needs one.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

Crash

Use of Computer 75%

Graphics 78%

Playability 77%

Getting Started 76%

Addictive Qualities 69%

Value For Money 64%

Overall 73%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Imagine Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.50 Language: Machine code Author: Eric the Bear (?) Whether the 'B.C.' before Bill's name means Before Computers or Before Crash is not stated on the inlay, but the game is certainly post-Imagine and is now marketed by Beau Jolly, the London company that secured the rights to market Imagine's games. B.C. Bill will probably cause some furore or other as it is a game of sexism, sex and violence. The basic object is to club women into a state of insensibility so that Bill can drag them off to his cave to be wives. Once in the cave they start producing children, signified by the periodic arrival of a red stork, baby in beak. The screen shows the cave, two belching volcanoes and a large collecting area where the women wander around waiting to be clubbed. The more women ,and children there are in the cave, the more food Bill must give them. Fortunately the food also wanders around waiting to be clubbed and dragged off. One problem is the predatory dinosaurs that eat anything they touch, including Bill. The game is played across seventeen years and the amount of food available depends on the seasons which can be seen changing as you play. A shortage of food may result in some wives dying, in which case the kids will leave home then Bill finally dies of a broken heart. B.C. Bill comes with a lavish inlay card which also contains a long and absurd account of the life of Eric the Bear, supposed writer of the game but which one may assume is entirely apocryphal. The game idea apparently comes from Mark Butler himself and so he must take any blame which attaches for its chauvinistic attitudes! Incidentally, although it doesn't say so on the inlay, B.C. Bill will load and play with the Currah micro-speech unit plugged in, so you can enjoy the very good music by Abdul Ibrahim as well as the rest of the effects. COMMENTS Control keys: alternate bottom row keys for left/right, third row/second row for up/down, top row to club Joystick: AGF, Protek, Kempston, Fuller, Sinclair Keyboard play: reasonable responsiveness, but slightly awkward positions Use of colour: quite good, the type of game precludes too much Graphics: very good on Bill, less so on others, overall reasonable Sound: excellent tune, may be amplified via Currah micro-speech Skill levels: progressive difficulty Lives: 5

B.C. Bill sets out on another wife hunt. With no 'hold', the wildlife is rather blurry.

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 6/10

Sound 8/10

Originality 8/10

Lasting Interest 5/10

Overall 6/10

Chris Anderson

Peter Walker 6/10

Robert Patrick

Samantha Hemens

Tony Takoushi

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K CONTROL: Keys, Protek, Kemp, Sinc, Full FROM: Beau Jolly, £5.50 Tired of shoot-'em-ups? Then try this original offering from Beau-Jolly - the first club-'em-down! You control B.C. Bill, an endearing little caveman, all hair and nose, in his attempts to start a dynasty. Firstly he needs some wives. These are acquired by romantically knocking to the ground any innocent female unfortunate enough to wander on-screen. Back at the cave they start producing children at an alarming rate, and as the seasons quickly pass Bill desperately struggles to feed them. All manner of strange creatures inhabit the area (one looks disconcertingly like a hamburger on legs!) and can be clubbed for food. However you are in competition with marauding dinosaurs, who are also partial to a little caveman! In all this mayhem you must keep your family from starving for as long as possible, receiving bonus points for any child reaching maturity. The background screen is nicely drawn with the cave in a corner and smouldering volcanoes in the distance. All the characters move smoothly and are very well animated - Bill's clubbing motion is incredibly realistic. Sound too is impressive, far removed from the Spectrum's normal plaintive beepings, with some excellent tunes being played. Control is no problem either. A wide choice of joysticks or sensibly placed control keys is offered. However, I do have one major reservation in recommending this game. There is only one screen with a limited variety of action and its long lasting appeal is doubtful. Still, B.C. Bill is a nicely presented, programmed, and packaged game worth looking at.