Ghost Rider

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 4/10

Richard Price 4/10

BIKERS BORE IN CREEPY CASTLE Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 BMXers beware. Somewhere out there is a castle full of ghosts and treasure ready to take you into its dreadful maw. Ghost Rider from Positive image features an intrepid bike rider competing in such a spectral motocross. The game uses the platform format with the castle rooms split into six levels. The rider is shown as a silhouette figure pedalling away for dear life around the haunted pile. Access to each level is by unpredictable elevators which must be ridden onto with some precision. Getting off the lifts is equally dangerous as there is only just enough space between roof and ceiling for the rider to fit. Treasures such as crowns and golden cups are lying around on the platforms and all must be collected before you can go onto the next screen. There are twelve screens each of increasing difficulty. The floors are patrolled by an assortment of ghosts and monsters all of which will kill our biker instantly if he makes a false move. The hazards are much the same on each screen though the structure of the platforms gets more fragmented. On first sight the program seems relatively simple but in fact you must take great care to collect treasures in the correct order, or you will run out of fuel and be unable to reach the refuelling point in time. The golden cups are only accessible after the other minor items have been picked up and are often placed behind brick walls which create further obstacles. Though the game is difficult and nerve-racking at times the graphics are rather bleak and flickery. The use of a white background results in a fair amount of glare and can be tiring after a while. The rather unspiring presentation counts against the program. So does the fact that it is extremely temperamental about loading.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 69%

Graphics 57%

Playability 55%

Getting Started 58%

Addictive Qualities 66%

Value For Money 55%

Overall 60%

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Producer: Positive Image Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £ Language: Machine code Author: Tom Cannavan The Game, says the inlay, is to collect the golden cup from each screen. The cups are locked away so a key is needed. Other objects can be collected as well. Ghost Rider is a platform game in which you star as a biker with pedal power. There are six levels connected by fast rising and descending lifts at either end of the platforms. The main difficulty is timing to get on or off the lifts, and in avoiding the various hazards that float around on the levels protecting to collectible objects. A problem is that objects on each screen have to be collected in the right order and it isn't possible to ride a lift all the way round. Collecting the key results in the vaults containing the golden cup vanishing to leave the cup free for collection. Completing the first screen moves you onto the second, more difficult arrangement. here holes have appeared in the platforms making the route more torturous. Each screen is played against a time limit and a fuel limit, and there is a petrol pump somewhere to top up, although why a pedal bike requires petrol is open to speculation! In all there are twelve levels. COMMENTS Control keys: Z/X left/right Joystick: hardly needs it Keyboard play: simple keys and reasonable responses Use of colour: varied use, spoilt by use of white background Graphics: imaginative and varied, not all that smooth Sound: pedal noises and other occasional beeps Skill levels: 1 with progressive difficulty Lives: 3 Screens: 12