Bimbo

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 5/10

Sound 5/10

Originality 7/10

Lasting Interest 4/10

Overall 5/10

Steve Mann 5/10

MACHINE: Spectrum JOYSTICK: No SUPPLIER: Joe the Lion PRICE: £5.45 'Joe The Lion' is in fact a performance artist who was immortalized in song by David Bowie. Quite what this rather obscure gentleman has to do with computer software I have no idea - I guess the company just thought it was a catchy name, one that might suggest some eye-catching artwork on the packaging of their products. Anyway, Joe's offering for the Spectrum is Bimbo, and it all seems a bit on the twee side. To start with, the cassette inlay manages to mention just about every software house in the land during the course of a boring and pointless story. The game itself involves manoeuvring a rabbit around a maze, eating carrots and clover and avoiding the pursuing black rabbits. These last may be delayed by dropping apples in their path, but while the player's attention is on the black rabbits, care must be taken to avoid falling in one of the many pits that litter the landscape. That's all there is to it - there's no Hall of Fame, no joystick option, and although there are several different skill levels I failed to progress beyond Level 2. I would put this down to a lack of interest on my part, rather than any intrinsic difficulty in playing the game itself. The presentation is good, with the user being able to call up the instructions with a single keypress should he or she get stuck, but there's little here to hold your interest. Nice name, shame about the game...

Personal Computer News

Lasting Appeal 2/5

Playability 3/5

Use Of The Machine 2/5

Overall Value 2/5

Barry Miles

Bob Chappell

Geof Wheelwight

John Lettice

Kevin Bergin

Russel Jones

Simon Williams

Tony Harrington

PCN MICROPAEDIA VOL 21 PART 1 GAMES COMPENDIUM Atari Arcade Action BBC Blast-off Commodore 64 Cavalcade Spectrum Spectacular Dragon Digressions Welcome to gameplayers' heaven. This week sees the beginning of our two part Micropaedia devoted exclusively to games reviews. We have collected together a large selection of arcade, adventure and educational games for six of the most popular micros: the BBC B, Electron, Sinclair Spectrum, Dragon, Commodore 64 and Atari. NAME: Bimbo SYSTEM: Any Spectrum PRICE: £5.45 PUBLISHER: Joe The Lion [redacted] FORMAT: Cassette LANGUAGE: Basic OTHER VERSIONS: None OUTLETS: Mail order/retail You're in a fixed-shape maze, only part of which appears on the screen, and scattered around are ten carrots which you must eat to progress to the next level. Eating ten raw carrots is preferable to being eaten by the black rabbits who are after blue Bimbo. The game is well-designed, but limited. You start at the centre with a black rabbit hot on your fluffy little tail... well, it would be if you had a tail, the rabbits being represented by mobile heads. At the top of the screen is a row of up to ten carrots, which is the number you've still to find and at the bottom a row of five heads: your remaining lives. You get an extra life every 10,000 points. At the top left is the latest device no rabbit should be without. Not a video or an electric toothbrush, but a radar of the whole maze, with dots indicating where the carrots are, and flashing dots showing for the rabbits. Other features of the maze are pieces of clover, which you don't have to eat but give you extra energy if you do, as will the carrots. There's no indication of how you're doing for energy. There are pits, which are easy to spot but still claim the occasional panicky rabbit victim. After the first level the number of black rabbits increases by one each time, except that every fourth level you're spared the pursuers but have to battle on a time trial to collect all the carrots. The major drawback is the jerky movement of the maze. Good fun in a limited way, but probably one of those games that's hare today, gone tomorrow.

Crash

Use of Computer 58%

Graphics 78%

Playability 75%

Getting Started 69%

Addictive Qualities 55%

Value For Money 85%

Overall 70%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Joe the Lion Memory Required: 16K Retail Price: £5.45 Language: Machine code Author: Jonathan Easter For those who enjoy the blurb on inlay cards, Bimbo should provide some amusing reading before playing the game. The story tells of Bimbo rabbit and his Australian friend Bruce, and manages to fit into its theme just about all the best known software houses along the lines of: "Just imagine," said Bruce. "Shh," said Bimbo, "I 'm trying to learn my alphabet so I can be superior to the rest of the class." "You'll never beat soft Tek. He says he finds english addictive and he's only severn. It's his ultimate ambition to teach these new automata." And so on. The game is a four directional scrolling maze many times the size of the playing area, in which Bimbo must move, eating ten carrots and avoiding the chasing black rabbits. There are also clover leaves to be found which can be eaten for bonus points. Black rabbits may be delayed by dropping green apples in their paths which they stop to eat. Moving and dropping apples uses up energy which is regained by eating the carrots, but if you run out of energy before eating all the carrots, then you're dead. The game starts off with just one rabbit chasing, but with each level progressed the number of black rabbits increases up to a maximum of ten. Each fourth screen is a special one without rabbits, but a severe time limit imposed by a dropping energy rate which means you must eat all the carrots before it expires. To help you, there is a radar screen which shows the positions of Bimbo, black rabbits and all the carrots. Extra life at 10,000 points. COMMENTS Control keys: 2/W = up/down, 9/0 = left right, Z or M = drop apple, not the best arrangement Joystick: none Keyboard play: responsive, but a key press keeps Bimbo in motion and reaching for apples can be a problem Use of colour: reasonable to good Graphics: generally good although a little jerky Sound: good tune, otherwise average Skill levels: progressive difficulty Lives: 5

Bimbo, Bimbo, where ya gonna go-io?