Battle Axe

Crash

Presentation 80%

Graphics 85%

Authenticity 70%

Playability 75%

Overall 71%

Philippa Irving 71%

FRONTLINE With Philippa Irving HITTING THE HARD STUFF Some computer games are junk food for the mind: strong in flavour, instantly palatable, but empty of nutritional content. They can be dangerous because they provide such an instantaneous, direct and easy stimulus. They also give you interaction without the presence of another human being, and can act as a painkiller for loneliness. The right kind of mind can be absorbed by the simplest of addictive games for hours, but it's empty enjoyment. On the other hand, I feel refreshed after emerging from the depths of a good adventure. Adventures don't give your mind the same moment-by-moment input as the addictive arcade games; there are long moments of staring out of the window, reloading a saved position for the seventeenth time after yet another unexpected death and contemplating maps in bitter frustration. But when you're playing an adventure you're letting your mind stay awake and work independently, rather than turning yourself into a jellied mass of nerves whose purpose in life is to move as quickly as possible to the right or to the left. Strategy games strike a balance. Adventures aren't really addictive in the usual computer-gaming sense, because they're too much on a literary plane: the player types in words, which makes him continually aware of the separation between himself and the game. But it is possible to get lost in the 'game reality' of a fast-moving wargame while pursuing a cogent strategy. And despite my misgivings about excessive indulgence in computer games, there's no doubt that the basic quality of addictiveness is an essential ingredient of any good piece of software. BATTLE AXE Author: Scott Johnston, [redacted] Retail Price: £1.50 and a blank cassette It's encouraging, though ironic, to receive a homemade wargame which I'd recommend above all this month's commercial efforts - and it's a strange coincidence that CRASH focuses on homegrown software in this very issue! (See page 38.) Battle Axe isn't very sophisticated, but its presentation and visual appearance put more than half the software I receive to shame. And though it's based on simple Samurai-type play, the five maps, the addictiveness and low price make it worthwhile. But there are no rules, which is a pity; the instructions we loaded as a block and then overwritten. Concisely it's explained that the usual rampaging hordes from the north, or across the mountains, have decided your tribe's territory would make a desirable addition to their property. So you've gathered together the best fighting men in your tribe, which can only muster 12 archers and 12 warriors. But, you're warned, the enemy is much stronger than that... The player is then treated to a beautifully-drawn and evocative loading screen, which is something wargamers have learned to live without. The screen display is attractive and polished, too; it looks more like the frame for a science-fiction game than for a tale of spear-waving barbarians, with embossed metal styling reminiscent of Para raid. Appearance is always secondary in a strategy game, but careful presentation like this enhances appreciation. The screen is divided into several sections, one showing the main area of action, another a long-range view; there is a message window and a row of icons. All the forces can be seen on the long-range map, though there is no way of telling which side the black dots belong to. At the beginning both sides are grouped in sued blocks at the top and bottom of the map. Using the icons, the player can move a figure, or order it to fire if it's an archer - this is the extent of action. The opposing sides start the game a fair distance apart and it takes a couple of turns for combat to get under way. Each unit (or figure - this is getting close to figure wargaming on a computer) has a pool of action points which determines how far it can move and how many attacks it can make. One point is consumed by moving (with no penalty for diagonal movement, and no terrain effects) and two by firing. Swordsmen have more action points than archers, which is just as well; the outcome of combat is, rather oddly, determined by the number of remaining action points. And when a figure comes into contact with another, a complex arithmetical process takes place - the result is that one warrior seems incapable of killing two enemy warriors simultaneously. I suppose this is fair enough. The archers are by far the most efficient units. Positioned in range of several enemy figures, an archer can pick them all off within its movement allowance. And when the computer has its turn, which is processed quite quickly, the archers can descend upon the player's units with frightening speed. Their rapid firing sounds amusingly like laser shot But archers can shoot themselves (this must be quite a feat), and the presence of obstacles affects their chance of hitting their target. This is a fast, simple, no-nonsense game put together with the sort of care which professional software houses should exercise.

It's swingtime in Battle Axe.