Dodge City

Crash

Overall 57%

Producer: Phoenix, 48K £9.99 (2) Author: Fraser Orr For adventurers, the problem with this game is that to load the adventure you must first win through 12 levels of an arcade game where baddies chase your pony express rider. Completing the 12 levels results in a running code for the adventure as well as some vital clues. Your task is to prove you innocence of the murder of the deputy sherrif who has been found dead in your hotel room with you holding the gun that did it. It is an option menu graphic adventure with each situation offering two or three choices of action. Overall CRASH rating of 57%, machine code.

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Crash

Overall 57%

Producer: Phoenix, 48K £9.99 (2) Author: Fraser Orr This is a two-part game with an arcade cassette and an adventure cassette. Only if you complete 12 levels of the arcade game will you receive the secret code which allows you to run the adventure game (See Adventure section next month for the game details of the second cassette). You are a mail rider on the desert plain, galloping your horse along, avoiding the cactus plants (a prickly end) and collecting the mail bags which have been so carelessly left about the desert. But behind you come baddies, shooting at your back. You can dodge the bullets or fire back. If you hit a baddie, he's soon backed up by another. As each level progresses more baddies join in. Get shot, hit a cactus or miss 4 consecutive mail bags and you lose a life. Between each level you are given clues, vital to solving the adventure game. We had some doubts about the idea of combining two so inter-related games. Poor keyborad positons, joystick: Kempston, good colour and graphics. 12 skill levels essential (24 in all), above average. CRASH overall: 57%.

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Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 7/10

COLLECTING MAIL IS JUST A START Memory: 48K Price: £9.99 Dodge City is made up of two games, an arcade and an adventure which are supplied on different cassettes. The player's aim in the arcade game is to elude pursuers, dodge cacti and collect the mail. Six successful mail collections completes a skill level and 12 skill levels must be completed before the adventure game can be played. At the end of alternate skill levels the player arrives to find that a telegram containing a clue for the adventure has been delivered. They appear and disappear slightly too quickly to be noted at the time but the game is so difficult that frequent re-starts will mean that most players will have memorised the clues by the time they reach level 12. Various groupings of Indians, Mexicans and Confederate soldiers appear chasing the player during the game. Moving to the correct part of the screen at the proper time means that they can be shaken off quickly, although finding the proper place and the correct time can take hours. An infuriating feature is that the mail collector can be shot at any time, even when no bullets have been seen to fly, or the pursuer behind is dead, or even when there is no visible pursuer behind. Another problem for the player is that Confederate soldiers seem to have nine lives, possibly because there are two of them on each horse. Once the twelfth level has been reached and the player arrives in Dodge City the adventure begins. The sheriff's deputy is dead and what better suspect could the sheriff have than the mail rider who just arrived in town? Dodge City is produced by Phoenix Software Ltd, [redacted].

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Crash

Use of Computer 45%

Graphics 70%

Playability 65%

Getting Started 40%

Addictive Qualities 57%

Value For Money 64%

Overall 57%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Phoenix Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: Language: Machine code Author: Fraser Orr Dodge City comes packaged in a large video-style plastic box and contains two cassettes. The first is an action game, the second an adventure game, each inextricably tied to the other. The object is to master twelve skill levels in the action cassette, and if you do you will be given the running code for the adventure cassette. Without this secret code you will be unable to play the adventure. At the end of each skill level you will be given a clue, and all the clues are vital to solving the adventure. The action tape shows you a Western desert plain with mountains in the background, and 'you' are a Pony Express rider. The aim is to collect four mail bags while avoiding the baddies on black horses chasing you. They shoot at you, and you can shoot back. If you hit one, he falls off his horse and dies, only to replaced a second later by another. The other problem takes the form of cactus plants - running into one results in a prickly end. On the first screen you find yourself chased by one baddy at a time, but on succeeding screens there are more baddies to contend with. These may be rotten cowboys, bandits, Mexicans or Indians and mixtures of all. You lose a life if hit by a baddy, if you run into a cactus or if you fail to collect four consecutive mail bags. Between each skill level the picture cuts to the office, where a message has arrived for you - a clue to collect for the adventure. When the adventure is loaded, you are asked for the code, If you get It wrong the program NEWs itself. The scenario for the adventure is that you must prove your innocence in the murder of Dodge City's deputy sheriff, who has been found dead in your hotel room with a pearl handle gun, presumed to have killed him, lying at your feet. Now, read on... COMMENTS Control keys: poorly positioned; left= 2/0/W/S/SYM SHIFT, right= 1/Q/A/CAPS/P/ENTER, down = 3/E/D/X/I/K/M, up = 4/R/F/C/N/J/U, fire=5/T/G/V/Y/H/B Joystick: Kempston Keyboard play: responsive, although confusing with the keys Colour: good Graphics: good Sound: fair, none on adventure tape Skill levels: 12 essential 24 in all (arcade tape) Lives: 5 (arcade tape)

A Mailman's gotta do what a male man's gotta do,...

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Keith Campbell

MULTIPLE DODGE Arcade versus Adventure is often a theme of readers' letters and, in Dodge City, the two are brought together. First an arcade game must be played up to skill level 12. You ride across the desert collecting mail, pursued by bandits, avoiding cacti and oncoming bullets. As you complete each alternate skill level, you are presented with a clue to the Adventure, and this culminates in the receipt of the password to enter the Adventure section. Into the Adventure itself then, and you find yourself in Dodge City, about to face a murder charge, and all the evidence stacked up against you. You must choose (1) to make a break for it or (2) submit to arrest. You choose (1) and find yourself looking into the guns of the Deputy Sheriff. You must decide (1) to raise you hands and surrender or (2) jump from the balcony,. Get the picture? Yes, at last a real multiple choice adventure. It has instant 'wide-screen' graphics and a good sense of humour. It would probably make a good board game, and is certainly to be recommended for wallies wishing to boast their Adventure prowess. Adventurers leave well alone. And the arcade game? (1) you like it or (2) you don't. Dodge City is from Phoenix Software for 48k Spectrum. priced £9.95. Reviewer: Keith Campbell