This package looks really exciting. A colour sleeve over the
box shows Harriers in flight over a carrier in an Advanced Tactical
Reconnaissance And Attack Mission, whilst two users ponder a
game board.
The board is magnetic, and divided in half. Each half shows
land and sea with targets, and a network of sectors. Each user
places his fighters, bombers, carriers, airstrips and missiles.
Then the two halves are married.
The computer program requires input to record the
status of the pieces, and after every move. It keeps the score as
each side moves pieces, attacks, runs out of fuel, etc. At the end of
the actions, it announces the winner.
Despite the slick presentation, the program is very crude. It runs
slowly in Basic, isn't full error trapped, graphics are unimaginative,
input prompts have layout bugs, and input itself requires you to
learn a long and tedious code from the not-very-clear manual.
Interesting concept, fabulous box and board, very poor program.
Might suit wealthy, addicted war-games, but not 13 year olds, for
Christmas.
27th November 1984
