Off the Hook

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Value For Money 3/5

In the past few weeks there has been a flood of game compilation tapes onto the market. Are they the bargain they seem? C+VG investigates and asks are the V.F.M. - that's value for money? The automatic response to getting anything up to 30 games for a few quid is that they're a great bargain. But are they the big deal they at first appear? Or is it case of software houses desperate attempt to make money on games that weren't successful first time round? First up is a gigantic offering from Argus - 30 games on two cassettes. Titles on the Spectrum version include Jet Set Gerties, 3D Tunnel, Carpet Capers, Meteor Storm and Blood and Guts. The list seems endless. Perhaps the best known of the bunch is Jeff Minter's Gridrunner, a game with plenty of zip and a lot of zap. And Commodore owners aren't left out. Argus has also put together another package of 30 Games for them. Titles include many of those in the Spectrum collection plus others such as the Quicksilva's Schizofrenia, a fiendishly difficult game to play. Both packages offer good value. It could be months before you finish all these games. Off the Hook, the charity package put together by Electric Dreams, offers even better value for money - ten games for £6.99. And at the same time you can ease your conscience about the many hours spent hunched over your computer by the fact that all money raised by Off the Hook goes to the Prince's Trust for the rehabilitation of drug addicts. Goodies on the Spectrum include Beyond's Psytron, Blue Max from US gold, and Melbourne House's Mugsy. It also includes Elite's Fall Guy but we prefer not to talk about that. Beau-Jolly also has its Computer Hits Volume 2 out on the Commodore, Spectrum, Amstrad, BBC B and Electron, price £9.95. We took a look at the BBC B collection and Amstrad. The BBC tape includes Micropower's Frenzy and Jet Power Jack and Kissin' Kousins from English Software. Perhaps the best is Superior's Starstriker, a version of the arcade classic Moon Cresta. Hewson's Technician Ted and Micromega's Codename Mat are the stars of the Amstrad collection, ably supported by Superpipeline 2, Tasket and Moon Buggy, Anirog. Remember Creative Sparks? They've been a little quite recently but now they've bought out two compilations of the Sparklers range of budget games, price £2.95. The Spectrum "TRIO" features: Desert Burner, Ouackshot and St Crippens. In Desert Burner, a fast scrolling arcade game, the lacier of a group of freedom fighters travels through the night on the Desert Burner, a powerful gun-carrying 200 mph road bike. His aim is to deliver top secret plans to the other resistance members without getting caught by his enemies. You need to be a "Quackshot" to survive in the next of the three games, where a revolution of clockwork ducks gets out of hand. St Crippens is the world's worst hospital. Escape is only possible if you can beg, steal or borrow new clothes to fool the guards who try to stop you leaving. First you must find your way through the dozens of wards. The Commodore 64 "TRIO" is equally testing with a choice of Chopper, Kayak or Merlin. The first game, "Chopper'' concerns a mighty helicopter gunship which has set Out to annihilate the enemy base. It needs a combination of both courage and skill to reach it as both man and machine are taxed to the limit. Kayak is a canoe simulation which requires first class presence of mind to negotiate the course ahead. In the third game, Merlin needs assistance in conquering the powers of evil that he encounters in this orginal arcade game. Anybody still got a VIC 20? Well grab £6.50 and splash out on Llamsoft's Viva Vic collection, included are Abductor, Gridrunner, Traxx, Andes Attack, Laserzone, Matrix, Megagalactic Llamas, Battle at the edge of Time and Hellgate. Fancy a bit of arcade fun for £4.50? Then Astro Cade on the Spectrum from DDS Software could be for you. The six games on offer are Simeon, Caverns D'Or, Bomber, Zombier, Luna Rover and Alien. The Complete BBC from Audiogenic is also worth checking out. Titles include The Chrysalis, arcade action in the cabbage patch, Drain Mania, a fairly standard platform game, and The Genesis Project, deep space action. Perhaps the most interesting game is Flip. Although it's not much fun to look at, it's good fun to play. It's a two player graphical strategy game in which hidden words must be uncovered. And last, but by no means least, Gremlin Graphics has come up with probably the two best quality compilations of the lot with 4 Zzap! Sizzlers and 4 Crash Smashes. As you may have guessed all the games have received high praise in a rival magazine. The Commodore 64 games are Who Dares Wins II (Alligata), Wizard's Lair (Bubble Bus), Drop Zone (US Gold) and Thing on a Spring (Gremlin). The Spectrum games are Spy Hunter (US Gold), Night Gunner (Digital Integration), Dun Darach (Gargoyle) and Alien 8 (Ultimate). Good fun, and excellent value at £9.95. All are well worth buying. 30 Games Argus £9.95 Off The Hook Electric Dreams £6.99 Computer Hits Vol 2 Beau Jolly £9.95 Trio Creative Sparks £2.95 Viva Vic Llamasoft £6.50 Astro Cade DDS £4.50 The Complete BBC Audiogenic £19.95 4 Zzap Sizzlers Gremlin Graphics £9.95 4 Crash Smashes Gremlin Graphics £9.95

Sinclair User

Overall 4/5

Greg Sullivan 4/5

With: Pitfall, Pystron, The Cars, Mugs, Kong Strikes Back, Chequered Flag, Sam Stout, Splat!, Fall Guy, Ad Astra. Publisher: Off the Hook Price C6.99 Memory: 48K A bit of a problem this since the proceeds go to charity - there are other reasons to buy it, apart from the games. Proceeds from the pack go to fight drug abuse - hence the title. Actually on games alone Off the Hook is worth having, particularly if you don't have Psytron which is the highlight of the pack. Some of the others aren't bad either. Psytron was one of the first Beyond releases, it came out at about the same time as Lords of Midnight. It is a complex game that doesn't slot easily into any one compartment - call it arcade/strategy for want of anything else. The task is to defend a life support environment from an all-out assault by nasties. This is a matter not only of blasting but of monitoring the various sections of the base and deploying forces accordingly. It's impossible to summarise here but here's an indicative point, on the fold-out booklet that comes with Off the Hook half of the instructions concern Pystron. There are some goodies among the rest of the games too. Ad Astra was the first from Gargoyle Games. Surprisingly, it's a straight space zap 'em with big graphics. A good couple of hours worth of blasting anyway. Mugsy from Melbourne House is basically a Kingdom-style management game, except that you manage crooks. The main point of Mugsy was that it had some huge, beautifully designed illustrative screens - the problem was that the strategy element is weak. The game doesn't last. Splat! is an ingenious maze game where it's the background that moves - the idea is to collect things but make sure you are not suddenly crushed into the walls because the playing area suddenly decides to move on. Surprisingly addictive. Kong Strikes Back is running and jumping on a rollercoaster. Chequered Flag is an OK racing game that suffers because there are no other cars to compete with. Fall Guy is about doing stunts but isn't much fun. Blue Max is an air attack, where you get to blast both air and ground targets. If you don't have Psytron, then it's worth buying Off the Hook for that reason alone and treat everything else as welcome bonuses.