Cassette 1

ZX Computing

Phil Garratt

NOT ALL THAT HAS COLOUR, GLITTERS. In their haste to get Spectrum software on the market, it appears that some companies have simply decided to recycle their ZX81 stuff, adding a few little squeaks from the sound, and an INK or PAPER or three. Phil Garratt takes a close look at some of the material available, and notes that among the dross, gold still shines. CASSETTE 1 Silicon Software "Elephants Graveyard" is an adventure-type game in which if you can survive five weeks in the jungle you will find yourself at the legendary graveyard. You start with 100,000 Kes (the local currency) with which you can purchase the assistance of natives, as well as supplies of food, guns and tents. Running out of supplies or money to pay the natives leads to an early demise, so a careful balance has to be found at the start. As you progress through the jungle, unpleasant things happen at random - attacks by lions and snakes, quicksand, storms, losing the trail and such like. The game looks like another ZX81 conversion - it has no user defined graphics and very little sound or colour. There are some minor bugs which suggest it hasn't been thoroughly tested. Also on the cassette is "Sates", a marketing simulation game for any number of players, in which you are in charge of an ice cream stall. You start with a working capital of £2 and have to decide how much to spend on advertising and ice cream stock based on the day's weather forecast. I usually ran into a severe liquidity crisis - all my unsold ice cream melted! Apart from the opening titles, no colour, graphics or sound are used. This program would run as happily on an old-fashioned teletype as on a full colour bells and whistles home computer. Both programs will run on a 16K or 48K Spectrum. "Cassette 1" is £2.95 from Silicon Software, [redacted].