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- **** 8-Bit Games Reviews ******************************************* PAGE ***
-
- \ / elcome to our second 8-Bit games round up. In this series we will
- \ /\ / be looking at some of the games available on the
- \/ \/ 8-Bit machines (C64, Vic 20, Speccy, Master System, NES etc.).
- We show the game overview, publishers, price, year of release,
- and the quotes from the boxes of the games. On to this disks
- selection...
-
- Rating system is out of a maximum of 10
-
- *************************************************************************
-
- Big Mac - The Maintenance Man
- Mastertronic 199 Range
- 1985
- £1.99
-
- Quotes:
-
- Ministry of Defence - Confidential data - Authorised personnel only
-
- Internal Memmo
- To:- 007¾ FROM:- Z
- Mission Code Name - Light Bulb
- Agent Code Name - Big Mac
- Agent's Cover - Maintennance Man
- Mission - To achieve complete shut down of enemy power station
-
- Data Currently Available for Mission Light Bulb
- Intelligence has assessed that there are 15 power vaults. Once you have
- broken into the enemy security system the air supply is automatically
- switched off. The air meter will keep you informed of the air you have
- left to complete your mission. The security system within the station
- itself will also be activated upon entry, so be on your guard! You will
- also gain an extra life for every vault you complete up to a maximum
- of 4 lives.
- You may also start a game in any power vault that you have already
- reached before by pressing 'Y' after the game has re-started. Each
- time you press 'Y' you will move up to the next power vault.
-
- Page :- This game is really cool. I have been playing it since 1987 and
- still can't finish the bloody thing. The game involves you running
- around rooms and you must reach the exit in them, but you must avoid
- hammers from the roof, machines that shoot bullets at you from walls,
- moving platforms, platforms that fall away when you stand on them
- and much, much more!
-
- Rating: 9
- Commodore 16/+4 Version Tested
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Cave Fighter
- Blue Ribbon
- £2.99
-
- Quotes:
-
- Potholing used to be such a lonely hobby. Dangerous but lonely!
- That's one of the reasons Pothole Pete, who you control, took up
- the hobby in the first place
-
- All this changes when you find a new and challenging cave. You
- make good progress in the enterance hall but your light seems weak.
- Suddenly the stillness is swept aside by the calls and screeches of
- many hideous creatures woken by your lamp.
-
- A rock fall means that the only way you can escape is by fighting
- through the chambers one by one. With only limited battery life,
- your journey soon becomes a race against time as you dodge and
- shoot creatures which bar your way.
-
- Page:- This game is quite fun for a while, you go through the levels
- and you must shoot the monsters, there are ladders and ropes to
- swing on and there are puddles you can fall in. The only problem
- is it gets to hard.
-
- Rating: 6
- C64 Version Tested Also available on C16/+4
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Rigel's Revenge
- Bulldog Software
- 1987
- £1.99
-
- Quotes:
-
- Harper and Elliot together formed one of the greatest newsgathering
- teams of the 22nd Century. Thier coverage of the Re-unification War was
- carried out by every major Federation comm-network, as the Fleet troops
- brought the insurgent colonies back into the Federation's grip.
-
- Then, one day - in his quest to stay ahead - Eliot went to far. He
- pursuaded Harper that they should become agents for the Alterian Corps,
- an influential group dedicated to the cause of peace. In return for their
- work, the Corps would guarantee them scoop after scoop. Thier mission
- was to go to Rigel V, where one region still held out against the Federation
- troops. The rebels claimed to have a Doomsday Machine and would wreak
- the ultimate revenge if the Federation refused to withdraw from the planet.
-
- Elliot was smuggled in by the Alterian Corps as a Rigellian trooper. His
- mission, to discover the whereabouts of the Doomsday Machine and report
- to Harper, who was to follow one week later, in his true role as a front-
- line reporter.
-
- Harpers instructions: to meet Elliot, at night, in a certain backstreet
- in the occupied sector of the town...
-
- At the end of Part One, you will be asked to save your game position
- for Part Two. You should do this several times on a fresh cassette
- and then reset the machine. Having loaded Part Two, you will be
- prompted to load your data from Part One. You will only need to do this
- one. When Harper dies or you quit Part Two and the game restarts in
- the same way as the first half.
-
- Page:- This game certainly has a gripping story line. It is a very good
- text adventure to play if very hard. It may just be me, but I can't
- even get out of the dark alley, it keeps responding with things like:
- HARPER STUMBLES AROUND IN THE DARKNESS, or YOU CAN'T SEE. When I
- enter commands like NORTH, or LOOK. There are around 50 words it
- reconises. You can even put in rude words that are not listed in
- the inlay card like PI*S, or SH*T which it responds with, NOT HERE!!
- in red text. This is definately one of the better adventure games
- around.
-
- Rating: 8
-
- Commodore 128 version reviewed, also available for C64
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- The Acornsoft Hits Volume 1
- Acornsoft & Superior Software LTD
- 1985
- £9.95
- 4 Game Pack, Monsters, Magic Mushroom, Planetoid, Maze
-
- Maze
-
- Maze is a real-time game with fast 3-D graphics.
-
- Find your way around the mazes which make up the security system inside the
- top secret instillation of a rival company. To obtain the secret informat-
- ion you are looking for, you must search as many of the levels as you can,
- moving between them in the computer-controlled lift.
-
- The corridors are patroled by robot guards armed with rechargeable guns
- who will shoot you on site, if you can't shoot or avoid them. So you
- must stay alert at ALL times.
-
- Page: - Bloody hell! This game is an excellent graphiced 3-D adventure
- where you wander around in real-time 3D. A MUST!
-
-
- Panetoid
-
- Action Stations! The Aliens are landing! Flying over the planetoid surface
- your laser-ship speeds to the rescue, firing laser missiles and dodging
- the enemy and their shell-fire. Save the life-forms while fending off
- raiders, mutents, bombers, cruisers, spores, and megacytes. Lightening
- refelxes are required to play this game - the fastest ever seen on a micro!
-
- Page: - It's Defender. What more can I say, it is an exact arcade replica
- with the laser fire and hyper-space!
-
- Monsters
-
- Page: - This is a version of the excellent C16 game Hektic. There have been
- other variations of the game I bet but the C16 one is the only other
- one I have seen. The game basically involves you climbing ladders to avoid
- the beasts, you then dig at a sutible time and the monsters fall down the
- hole, you then put the soil back on top of them and they fall down and
- die. There are monsters that have to be knocked down 4 holes!
-
- Quotes:- Pursued by monsters along walls and up and down ladders, your
- only hope of survival is to outwit them by trapping them in holes which
- you dig in their path. You can score extra points by dropping the monsters
- through several levels, and the further you get the more you can
- score, as the monsters vary and become more devious.
-
- Quite an exhausting business, so keep and eye on the oxygen level which
- drops during each screen and eventually runs out, whereupon you will die.
- You have three lives however, and can earn another one by scoring 3000
- points.
-
- Includes score, ladder of high scores, excellent graphics and sound effects.
-
- Rating: 10
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- And I'll see you in the next issue with a great review of Gun Law for the
- C+4. See you then!
-
- Nick.
-
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