Wanderer

Your Sinclair

Max Phillips

FAX BOX Title: The Wanderer Publisher: Rio Promotions Phone: [redacted] Price: £19.95 Reviewer: Max Phillips I wander about this too. French software house Pyramide seems to be a few steps ahead of its British counterparts and this veritable megagame is its current showpiece. The plot is a little bizarre. And I thought we had the monopoly on strange senses of humour! Try and get this all in one go - it'll hurt less. Earth is plagued by mysterious catnappings (not nap attacks, Garfield, genuine disappearances) and you take off in a conveniently acquired spaceship to locate your landlady's beloved moggy. Now you find yourself in a star system ruled by The Sphinx, where the planets are so bored, they've taken to playing a bizarre variation on Poker. The local currency is, of course, cats (that explains one thing) and you end up trading cards between planets, taking on unfriendly spaceships, diving in and out of black holes in an effort to amass enough cats to take on The Sphinx himself. All this takes place in pseudo 3D Elite-style line-graphics, using red and blue lines and a pair of specs to get that spaced-out feel. Pyramide explains that you won't see the 3D if you look for it and that you really need a darkened room and half an hour to adjust before the effect begins to work. Added to that you'll need a damn good screen; most of the knackered old tellies round Castle Rathbone didn't give a sharp enough or bright enough picture. That said, there were moments when the game (if not the plot) suddenly leapt into perspective and the experience is quite something. This game desperately needs a joystick in CTL2; the keyboard controls turn out to be the function keys and are nigh-on impossible to use. And I managed to work out that it's a dead loss on a black'n'white screen. How's about a version in boring old 2D for those of us still saving our cats for a Microvitec? The Wanderer combines just about every game element you could wish for. Tactics are needed in your travels around the universe and in your methods of combating the feline felony. Strategy helps in playing the red-hot Poker and arcade reflexes assist in getting through unscathed. There's also enough in it to keep you at it long after every Speccy owner has achieved Lenslok status in Elite; and that's despite a booklet full of maps and copious hints to help you. So it's a good one to get your spaceship stuck into, though quite how long it'll grab you and how much is actually achievable, is hard to say. There are times when the game is a rather repetitive slog. And there are moments when... Well, there are moments when.

To see 3D effect, trace alternate lines with red and blue pen, tear out page (or photocopy) and place in front of torch in darkened room. Next, take wrappers from toffee-nut and toothache-surprise Quality Street sweeties and sellotape over eyes and.... Aaaah forget it!

ZX Computing

QL SOFTWARE Not much has been released for the QL of late, but what there is seems to be getting better... QL WOBBLEVISION French software house Pyramide are about to release some of their QL programs onto the UK market, the first being something of a novelty. Wanderer, as it's called, comes complete with cardboard glasses just like the ones you get if you've ever been to a see a 3D film. The plot is a bit odd, the main task being to rescue your landlady's cat (see I told you it was odd). It seems that there's a game of interstellar poker being played by all the planets in the galaxy and the main units of currency in this game are cats, which is why thousands of cats have gone missing from all over the galaxy, catnapped by the ruler of the universe, The Sphinx. Wanderer is similar in many ways to Elite - there are the same space combat and navigation sequences, but the trading elements have been replaced by the poker game in which you have a chance of gaining access to the Sphinx's ship. But of course a lot depends on what you think of the 3D effect. Personally I found that this worked well in the outer space sequences and helped to create a suitably 'spacy' atmosphere, but that it didn't really add much to the poker section of the game, since this is less interesting graphically regardless of whether it's in 3D or not. Still, Wanderer is undoubtedly one of the best games yet released for the QL, though I can't help thinking that £19.95 is a bit steep even for 3D graphics.

Sinclair User

Overall 5/5

John Gilbert 5/5

Publisher: Pyramide, [redacted] Price: £19.95 Cult Games are unheard of on the QL, but I've got a feeling that state of affairs is likely to change when The Wanderer hits the screen. I've seen 3D games before - in which you must wear 3D glasses - but only The Wanderer has worked for me. The initial demo displays with their strange conglomeration of objects floating through space tell of the miracles to come. Bicycles spin past, pentagons twist and turn, and cards float lazily towards infinity. Press Enter and the space map is displayed. Most of the map squares are blank and represent sectors. The other squares represent worlds on which you can play poker for energy and shield power, and gateways into other galaxies. The plot revolves around some nasty looking moggies - who are on the warpath, destroying everything they find in their path through space. The 3D perspective makes it difficult to destroy them. If you clip only the side of one of their space crafts you might get hit by floating debris, followed by a venomous attack from their laser guns. If you were hoping for a version of Elite on the QL, The Wanderer falls far short. Although there are many types of feline battle cruiser, including one which looks like a flexi-lamp complete with domed shade and stand, the planets on the star map do not have their own economies - the idea is not to trade. You must gamble at the poker tables - like Han Solo in Star Wars - and blow everything out of space. Despite the lack of sophistication in plot, The Wanderer is the only game worthy of the arcade tag on the QL. The 3D graphics are spectacular and at times you will feel as if you are about to fall into the screen. The transition between star systems initiated from the star map ridicules those industry pundits who say that if you want fast graphics on the QL you are flogging a dead horse. When you enter space warp your craft rushes through space. The stars swirl in a vortex and you will feel very, very sick. Pyramide, a French company, has done wonders with its first product for the British market. Its superb packaging and documentation complement a program which shows its author to be very talented. The Wanderer puts many British software products to shame. I can only hope that such excellence will make British software houses get off their backsides and produce something worthwhile.