Wilfred the Hairy, Olaf the Hungry

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 2/10

Memory: 48K Price: £5.50 Military strategy games should be complex and well-devised if they are to satisfy war-gamers and should enable the player to develop tactical skills. Programs like Johnny Reb and Apocalypse are examples which demonstrate those qualities. Regrettably, Wilfred the Hairy, Olaf the Hungry from Microbyte does not fulfil those requirements and left the reviewer wondering why the game has been produced in such an apparently unfinished state. The intention of the programmer seems to have been to create a world-wide, map-based conflict between two armies captained by the aforementioned heroes. The computer acts as one and the player takes on the role of the other. You may move your "piece", drawn as a rather sketchy warrior, across the continents, returning when your ammunition is exhausted to your equally sketchy base. There are no easily-distinguishable screen prompts to show when it is your turn and instructions are very limited. It really seems as if the computer is hogging all the play, leaving you a few brief moments in which to move round the board and deposit flag markers to show your territory. There is no effective combat sequence, except a small graphics window which displays sea fights using a movable cannon and enemy warships. After a time it seemed easier to let the computer carry on alone as there was no stimulus to play and no excitement or skill if you did. It is an undistinguished and tedious game offering little originality or playability.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online

Crash

Use of Computer 33%

Graphics 15%

Playability 10%

Getting Started 25%

Addictive Qualities 5%

Value For Money 10%

Overall 16%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Microbyte Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.50 Language: BASIC & m/c It is the age of the Vikings and you are Olaf (in blue), pitting your wits against Wilfred (in red), alias your Spectrum, in this game of ancient strategy. The basic object of the game is to conquer the known world, which includes North and South America, Africa, Europe and most of Asia. Your castle and home is situated somewhere on the site of where Winnipeg will one day be built, and the awful Wilfred has his sited somewhere to the north of Lake Victoria in Africa. Continents are entered and left via ports marked as green spots and conquering is accomplished by placing appropriately coloured flags in columns and rows throughout the country. Plagues of rats and fleas are a problem for Wilfred and he often has to return home to delouse. Both sides have an ammo allocation which is depleted whenever one of the enemy's flags is replaced by one of your own. This is also replenished by returning home. It is not possible to enter a continent totally conquered by Wilfred if his ammo level is above 40. Occasionally enemy shipping approaches your sailing ship and a small area at the bottom left of the screen clears to reform as a view of the sea, crenellated walls and a cannon. The enemy ships appear on the horizon and must be fired at by moving the cannon left and right and pressing key Z. Movement is via the cursor keys, each army taking turns. A message screen at the bottom informs you of Wilfred's seemingly endless misfortunes, a lot of which have to do with the widely spread Wangu tribe of head hunters. COMMENTS Control keys: cursors during main game, 6/7 left/right and Z to fire for the sea going cannon Joystick: AGF, Protek Keyboard play: very unresponsive Use of colour: poor Graphics: poor Sound: very poor Skill levels: none

Good shooting keeps the enemy at bay but in the end, it's the ubiquitous Wangu that win the day.

ZX Computing

Clive Smith

A strategy game for the 48K machines - very boring and full of bugs. I did manage to play part of the game until I hit the bugs. The screen displays a crude map of the world and you, being Olaf, have to occupy as many continents as possible whilst your opponent, Wilf the computer, is trying to do the same. Your progress is mapped by a blue flag every time you make a move and, boy it's slow. Sorry Microbyte. I was not very impressed. Microbyte can be found at [redacted].

Micro Adventurer

DD

WILF SHOT DOWN IN FLAMES MICRO: Spectrum 48K PRICE: £5.95 FORMAT: Cassette SUPPLIER: Microbyte, [redacted] This is a game with an amusing and intriguing title... unfortunately that's about all it has going for it. Wilf (for short) gained points for easy and reliable loading, but promptly lost them for demanding that I "Stop the tape" part way through so it could give me some badly spaced instructions, largely duplicating those on the photocopied sheet which accompanied the tape. The colourful insert boasts "High resolution action graphics", and indeed the pot-bellied stick figures of Wilf and Olaf move smoothly, if excruciatingly slowly, around the screen. The map though, is built out of low-res block capture either Europe and the enemy stronghold of all continents except Europe. The first problem is working out which of the amorphous blotches is Europe. Next you manoeuvre your man (Olaf, in blue), using the cursor keys, to position flags marking your territorial gains, while Wilf, controlled by the computer, does the same. Contact with the enemy causes loss of ammunition which must be replenished at the home castle, and random events can affect the ammo levels too. Moving onto a green area allows you to sail over the sea in a jerky UDG boat. (Apparently sea-battles are possible, but despite playing for several hours none of Wilf's craft attacked me). The idea is uninspiring and the execution is dismal. As well as the graphical shortcomings, control of movement is slow and awkward, you can sail the ship to a landlocked lake, the messages sometimes disappear before they can be read and have no relation to the state of play (hostile tribes can attack you while you are right outside your own castle, for example). The game is boring in the extreme. The computer plays a cagey game and despite covering all continents with blue flags and even somehow turning Wilf blue as well I couldn't beat it. The option to play another human would considerably enhance the interest, but even then I doubt this game would hold many adventurers' attention for long.