Copter

Personal Computer Games

Overall 2/10

Chris Anderson 2/10

CHEAPO GAMES - THE PCG VERDICT Chris Anderson samples the huge pile of low-cost tapes in the shops and discovers a few cracking bargains. Imagine a game containing 150 very difficult screens to be conquered and mapped out. Suppose each screen offers attractive, smooth graphics and exciting sound effects. Now suppose the game is on the market for £2.50. A bargain? Dead right. What's more the game exists. It's called Go Go the Ghost, it's released by Firebird for the Commodore 64, and it's just one of the programs we've unearthed which disprove the claim that all budget games are junk. Mind you, you have to be incredibly careful shopping in the sub £3 price range. Many of the titles on offer are state of the art 1982. They offer about as much lasting interest as the Daily Mirror quick crossword. Frankly four or five of them wouldn't be a patch on a decent standard price game. But there are also a large number of straightforward, simple, competent games which, until recently, software houses were selling for at least a fiver. And just occasionally you find a gem of a game which even a stinking rich games freak can't afford to turn up his nose at. 1985 CBM 64 (Mastertronic, £1.99) Stunning graphics for a cheapo game. You blast off in a space-craft to one of four planets where you have to pick up a number of nuclear pods. This involves manoeuvring the craft very delicately until it's close enough to activate a tractor beam. Accidental contact with the planet terrain is fatal and so is being hit by a regularly passing flying saucer or by the slow-firing planet defence guns. The game has a great feel to it because of the way the craft is controlled - rotate left, rotate right and thrust, as in Asteroids or Lunar LanderThere are also some cool sound effects. Each of the planets and the home base consist of a scrolling, wrap-around scenario. The planets include caverns, some of which are very tricky. Should you clear all tour, you get to try the final stage which is an even more difficult cavern from which a fusion core must be picked up. It had my pulse racing, that bit if you make it, level two is the same except with negative gravity, making it harder still. Verdict: Knockout. Value for Money: 9 GO GO THE GHOST CBM 64 (Firebird, £2.50) This one will spook the opposition for sure - it's a howling success, one which most software houses would be proud to sell at around the £7 mark. It was written by a Swede which means that whenever Go Go gives up the ghost he emits a speech bubble saying 'Fjup!' Swedish for 'Zap!' In fact, there's an awful lot of fjupping because the game is ghoulishly mean. In each of the 150 screens you have to go go round various obstacles to one of the exits, possibly flicking switches or picking up keys on the way. A large number of dastardly creatures obstruct you, forcing you to resort to an invisibility spell. This drains your power at a disspiriting rate, although there are objects to collect which restore power as well as grant extra time, lives or points. This is a full-featured arcade-adventure which could have you entranced for weeks. Just remember - you first read about it in PCG. Verdict: Go go get it Value for Money: 9 CHILLER CBM 64 (Mastertronics, £1.99) We've already reviewed this one - a surprisingly good platform game based on the Michael Jackson video. There are five very different screens, and some good background music. Verdict: It's a thriller. Value for Money: 8 BOOTY CBM 64, Spectrum 48K (Firebird, £2.50) Reviewed in our November issue, this is another cracking bargain with 20 linked screens of platforms and some novel game ideas. Verdict: Bootiful Value for Money: 8 FINDERS KEEPERS Spectrum 48K (Mastertronic, £1.99) The dramatic improvement in Mastertronic titles continues with this sparkling arcade adventure. Make your way through 25 screens of platform action, plus two large four-way scrolling mazes, in search of precious objects. Some are just lying around, others must be obtained by trading. And certain combinations of objects (which you have to work out) merge to produce more valuable ones (eg. philosopher's stone + bar of lead = bar of gold). Can you earn enough money to buy the King's daughter the special birthday present she wants? Or will you simply try to make yourself a fortune and then escape from the castle? Either way the game requires a certain amount of thought as well as arcade skills, and should take some little while to solve. Pretty graphics, worthy of a princess, including a very cute knight. Some of the platform screens seem a bit unplayable, and you're bound to lose energy by contacting nasties. But still an amazing title for the money. Verdict: Mastertronic magic. Value for Money: 9 SHUTTLE SHOCK Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99) What a shock! A platform game with a difference. The difference is angular teleporting. To move up you don't jump, you teleport in an upward diagonal line. With a bit of skill you end up on a platform and not in mid-air. Then there are the lifts which either drop you down safely, or shoot you sideways. They make moving about the screens great fun. Apart from that the screens and nasties are in the Manic Miner genre and are really very good. Solving them is challenging and fun. The only drawback is there are just 10 screens and it may not take more than a week or two to get through them all. Verdict: Lemme 'ave another go. Value for Money: 7 ESTRA BBC B (Firebird, £2.50) You collect some 30 fragments to form a statue at the centre of the screen. But there are five different alien species to avoid, each behaving quite differently. Great to see your statue nearing completion, heart-breaking when it gets blown to smithereens. The action doesn't alter too much on later screens but it does get VERY tough. Verdict: Great fun. Value for Money: 7 ACID DROPS BBC B (Firebird, £2.50) Hit the fire button and blast the nasties, but watch out for the acid which starts to drip out of the tank at the top of the screen. It kills you on contact - and it turns the nasties into nastier nasties. Survive long enough and a gate opens, allowing you a n exciting fast ride through a maze into the next level. Verdict: Sniffing stuff. Value for Money: 7 THE HACKER BBC B (Firebird, £2.50) A very competent platform game. The all leaping action isn't much lower in standard than in hit titles such as Blagger and Mineshaft. And although there are only 12 screens, instead of 20 or 30, you might just find that's all you're likely to get through. Verdict: Manic fun. Value for Money: 7 EXODUS CBM 64 (Firebird, £2.50) Enjoyable shoot-'em-up based (loosely) on the arcade game Tempest. Shoot monsters corning out of a pit, but avoid hitting the potatoes. Nice opening music. Verdict: Good blasting. Value for Money: 6 FRED'S FAN FACTORY Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99) Novel game idea in which you have to turn fans on and off to blow balloons safely through a hazard-filled platform network. Verdict: Fun for a while Value for Money: 5 HITMAN Spectrum 48K (Scorpio Games World, £1.99) Track down and shoot a series of killer agents. One or two reasonable still graphics, otherwise tedious rubbish, despite separate 48K instruction program! Verdict: Another Scorpio sting. Value for Money: 3 BEEBUL Spectrum 48K (Scorpio Games World, £1.99) Work your way down through a series of platforms, avoiding oscillating monsters. Verdict: Not enough to it. Value for Money: 4 NUKE LEAR Spectrum 48K (Charlie Charlie Sugar, £1.99) Simple panic game in which you try to divert a series of rolling barrels down the right channels. Verdict: Stay Nuke Lear free. Value for Money: 3 CRAZY CAVERNS Spectrum 16/48K (Firebird, £2.50) Push cubes into a huge, colourful mouth while avoiding 'crazy crashers'. Interesting tactics and 10 different screens. Verdict: Good for 16K. Value for Money: 6 MOONLIGHTER Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99) Variant on Pengo. Push boxes around a warehouse and avoid tennis balls. Nice music. Verdict: Couldn't play it. Value for Money: 4 RUN BABY RUN Spectrum 16/48K (Firebird, £2.50) Very difficult game in which you attempt to trick pursuing cars into crashing into each other. Poor graphics, but several different road layouts. Verdict: Frustrating Value for Money: 3 ZULU CBM 64 (Firebird, £2.50) Simple Pac Man based game with 25 connected mazes. You collect masks and avoid warriors. Hitting cauldrons makes the maze invisible. Verdict: Preferred the movie. Value for Money: 5 COPTER Spectrum 48K (Omega, £1.99) Fly a tiny helicopter around a blank screen, blasting other tiny helicopters. Verdict: Don't bother. Value for Money: 2 CALIFORNIA GOLDRUSH CBM 64 (Software Projects, £1.99) Move completely round boxes to create gold. Avoid Indians, or block their paths with dynamite. Average graphics and sound. Verdict: Mediocre. Value for Money: 5 ASTRAL ATTACK CBM 64 (Omega, £1.99) Move a cursor over descending shells to protect your cities. Verdict: Pretty, but boring. Value for Money: 3 REVENGE OF THE QUADRA Vic 20 +8K (Software Projects, £1.99) Fast, violent, noisy shoot-'em-up in the best Vic traditions. Your space ship shuttles left/right at the bottom of the screen and you hammer the aliens. Verdict: A good, old-fashioned BLAST. Value for Money: 6 GOLD DIGGER BBC B (Firebird, £2.50) Rather poor variant of Dig Dug. Verdict: Bury it. Value for Money: 4 CHALLENGER CBM 64 (Mastertronics, £1.99) Action based on the first section of Skramble. Verdict: Unchallenging. Value for money: 3 WIZARD'S WARRIOR Spectrum 48K (Mastertronic, £1.99) Multi-screen maze game with poor, jerky graphics. Verdict: Yawn. Value For Money: 2 BYTE BITTEN Spectrum 48K (Firebird, £2.50) Two-part game - make your way round a maze to find an object and you get to play Sea Wolf, a horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up set over a fleet of ships. Verdict: Forget the maze part. Value For Money: 4 BIRD STRIKE BBC B (Firebird, £2.50) Shoot pigeons to add notes to a tune. Trouble is these aircraft keep getting in the way. Verdict: Enjoyable but simple. Value for Money: 5 FLIP FLAP Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99) Fine simulation of pinball with plenty of different machines to try out. But is pinball any fun on a micro? Verdict: No. Value For Money: 3 TOMB OF AKENATEN Spectrum 48K (Charlie Charlie Sugar, £1.99) Mostly written in Basic. Jerk your way through an uninteresting labyrinth. Verdict: Graveyard material. Value For Money: 1 VAMPIRE KILLER Spectrum 48K (Scorpio Games World, £1.99) Tedious treasure collection game, written mostly in Basic and featuring jerky slow movement. Verdict: Bloodsucker Value For Money: 2

THE NAMES BEHIND THE GAMES The number of companies flogging cheapo games have ballooned in the last few months. First of all were Mastertronics whose launch of £1.99 games back in April sent shockwaves through the industry. However, their initial range of tides was pretty dire, and since then they've cut back on their number of releases in a partly successful effort to increase quality. Pulsonic were another early contender and the less said about them the better. When PCG reviewed five of their first releases only one got an overall rating above three - and that was taking into account the £2.99 price. If they've released anything better since we haven't seen it. Then there are the Greek letter ranges, Gamma and Omega. One Omega title, Battle Ground for the Vic 20, received a reasonable review in our December issue, but apart from that we haven't seen anything good from either range. And some of the titles were appalling. Two bigger names have entered the fray more recently. There's Firebird, backed by the massive resources of British (anyone want my shares?) Telecom who are putting out a 'silver range' of games at £2.50. Then there's Software Projects whose 'Super Saver' titles now sell at just £1.99. Both of these companies have managed to avoid releasing truly awful games, but nevertheless the bulk of both their ranges is unexceptional. Cheetahsoft are the latest to try their luck, having just cut the price of all their titles to £1.99. Well, they were certainly overpriced before.