ZX Computing


Dekorating Blues
By Alpha-Omega
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in ZX Computing #29

Dekorating Blues

This is a simple but effective game which is similar to the programs often published in magazines. It is, however, much faster and bigger than could be achieved using BASIC.

It is a type of maze/chase game, rather like Pacman in reverse. For each of the many screens you have to fill in the passageways with dots which represent painted areas while avoiding spray cans and beasties until you have used up the amount of paint allocated to each floor.

Each of these screens has been carefully designed in the shape of an object, i.e. a hammer, castle, etc, and part of the fun is getting to see what shape the next maze will be!

Dekorating Blues

There is a nice selection of well designed and animated sprites to make your task that much harder and some will remove dots which you painted in earlier. This can be an advantage, but collision with any will result in your demise. Should you find a fast moving sprite catching up to you, you can drop a dollop of paste which will stop it for a short period of time. You only have a limited number of these dollops and that, plus your lives, score and remaining units of paint is displayed at the bottom of the screen.

The screen is nicely presented and is clear and easy to understand, though I found it strange that painted areas are represented by dots rather than a colour area.

What is there to say of a game such as this? It is simple in concept yet enjoyable to play, the element of challenge is enough to keep you trying for a high enough score to get a higher position in the fall of fame. The level is set so that I got into the lowest position at the second attempt.

A good solid program.