Operation Turtle

Crash

Atmosphere 6/10

Vocabulary 5/10

Logic 5/10

Addictive Quality 5/10

Overall 5/10

Derek Brewster 5/10

DEREK BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL IS THE PRICE RIGHT? As has often been said before, the games software world has much in common with the music industry. Leaving aside the connoisseur's direct metal mastered LP discs, and the new technology-priced compact discs, the popular music LP has found its pricing niche in the £4-16 range. Above the six pounds mark the product begins to meet consumer resistance: within the mind of every potential pop purchaser is a set of scales which comes out with a value-for-money readout working on the figures of pocket money/disposable income and the real worth of bass guitars, leads, snares and high-hats syncopated into some sort of harmony. In case, as a young pop consumer, you think the above pretty obvious, it might be worth putting a historical perspective on this by pointing out the LPs dogged persistence for keeping its token value pegged at the £5 mark since 1976, a date from which inflation spring-boarded. This pegging of the price was not done without some modifications and cost-cutting, most noticably a thinning of the plastic and a reduction in quality which meant people like myself buying three records at a time in the sure knowledge that at least one of them would be a bad pressing. Now let's have a look at what's been happening in software in 1985. Figures show that Spectrum software sales are way ahead of those for Commodore, The BBC and C16 markets are much smaller than the two big boys but are significant, while the third biggest, Amstrad, is continuing to improve and catch up. The most successful company in terms of units sold was Mastertronic followed by US Gold and Ocean. Since US Gold and Ocean are in reality the same stable you might take them combined to be the greatest force in software. Mastertronic are famed for their cheap software selling in newsagents and petrol stations, though their £2.99 range has recently appeared in the high street multiple stores and is fast gaining a respectability previously thought beyond the budget game. The US Gold and Ocean group are famed for their top quality games selling at the seven and eight pounds mark. To confuse matters, rumours abound of both groups each planning to release games in the other's domain. A software house makes far less profit, after paying product costs and royalties, on a cheap game when compared to the margin on a full-priced product. A cheap game has to sell eight to nine times more to make the same profit as a full-priced game. But the more expensive game needs advertising and involves a greater risk - kids aren't going to part with eight pounds on a whim. Clearly there are many pros and cons to full- and budget-priced software but what I'd like to suggest is a price for software which will encourage both high consumer sales (with reduced copying), and quality programs. This figure I believe is somewhere around the five pounds mark, much the same as record prices. COMMANDO/OPERATION TURTLE Producer: Double Play Retail Price: £1.99 Author: P Robinson, E Graham Here we have Quilled games dating way back to 1984. Both look very much dated products (although only one, Operation Turtle, is actually dated) with unimaginative and uninteresting storylines and the kind of flat-footedness which leaves you wondering when it will end. Commandos story goes like this. You belong to an elite Commando unit, but you have been given a mission that entails you working alone in enemy territory. You have to find a list of enemy agents and return with it, so the agents can be apprehended. You begin in a submerged submarine where you can see a button, a gun, gauges and little else for now at least, since you can explore no more of the submarine. Since examining the gauges brings up 'I see nothing special' (as does examining just about everything) there seems nothing left to do but press the button, which seems to do the trick. Doing this leads you onto a dinghy which, after much exploring of the local waters and cliffs leads you on to the beach. Commando is a game with short location descriptions which is so uncooperative it may leave you short of patience. Operation Turtle starts with quite a weeze even before it's fully loaded. The common Double Play loading screen is replaced with the one for Operation Turtle and immediately wiped off once you've waited for the screen to load. The fact that the loading screen is poor (and simply the attributes of the first screen) is neither here nor there - after waiting for so long to see the screen it would have been courteous to at least give the player some time to see it. The eventual screen left for loading simply has 'Opertation Turtle' written on it. So much for amateurishness and let's look at the story line. It is October 1943. You have been briefed by British Intelligence using recent reports from units of the French Resistance. These communiques suggest the Germans are to develop a secret weapon that could eventually lead to the invasion of Britain. Although the region in which the research is taking place is known few other details have as yet filtered through. As the adventure begins you, as a top British agent, are gently floating down behind enemy lines in occupied France with orders to discover the exact whereabouts of the enemy's most lethal weapon and to report back with the vital information. Within minutes you have landed safely in a small field surrounded by trees in the first frame of the game. Unfortunately, the accompanying parachute carrying your radio failed to open and the radio therefore lies some miles away and is no doubt destroyed in any case. Your orders are to contact the resistance movement as quickly as possible. The contact arranged to meet you will respond to the phrases 'October winds blow from the east' and 'In Paris the winds blow from the south'. Operation Turtle plays in a very predictably manner. After wandering around for a few locations, characterised by your inability to do or examine anything, you are surrounded by Germans with fierce snarling hounds. This leads to 'You are in a white room furnished only with a single bed. The door is of heavy steel and a panel of buttons indicates that it is electronically operated.' Now I'm not saying the Germans didn't have electronically operated doors in occupied France. What I am saying is that it seems very unlikely. Once again we have a game written way back in 1984. COMMENTS (COMMANDO) Difficulty: made difficult by its unfriendliness Graphics: there ain't any Presentation: very average Input facility: verb/noun Response: Quill General Rating: COMMENTS (OPERATION TURTLE) Difficulty: made difficult by its unfriendliness Graphics: there ain't any Presentation: very average Input facility: verb/noun Response: Quill General Rating: hackneyed and showing its age