Personal Compuer Games


Dragon Rider
By Salamander
BBC Model B

 
Published in Personal Computer Games #4

Dragon Rider

Fancy riding a dragon from its lair in the Black Mountains into the wild blue yonder? Of course you do. Fancy playing a slow, boring game, written in Basic, that's about as challenging as a game of one-player Snap? Of course you don't. Well, I've got bad news for you...

Salamander's program just doesn't make the grade. You control a dragon as it flaps ponderously about the screen, and by pressing the 'f0' key you can fire at some rather indistinct graphics shapes as they move slowly from the top of the screen to the bottom.

If they hit the bottom of the screen, there is a noise like an explosion and a bit of the ground disappears.

Dragon Rider

Your dragon only has a limited amount of energy, and changes colour as it gets tired. Once it turns black you have only a few seconds left, unless you get it down to earth and land it on a magenta-coloured rock where it can feed and replenish its energy.

You have to manoeuvre it carefully into exactly the right position before it will start to eat. If all this is too difficult for you, you can try pressing the 'f1' key, which releases the dragon's fiery breath and wipes out two or three of the enemy at one blow. This uses more energy and the game finishes sooner, so I suppose there is something to be said for it.

The higher skill levels do little to improve the game, except that the dragon runs out of energy quicker. I'm afraid I ran out of interest long before my last dragon ran out of breath.

SC

Other BBC Model B Game Reviews By SC


  • Pengwyn Front Cover
    Pengwyn
  • Ghouls Front Cover
    Ghouls
  • Nifty Lifty Front Cover
    Nifty Lifty
  • Cylon Attack Front Cover
    Cylon Attack
  • Cybertron Mission Front Cover
    Cybertron Mission
  • Caesar The Cat Front Cover
    Caesar The Cat
  • Jungle Jive Front Cover
    Jungle Jive
  • Asteroid Miner Front Cover
    Asteroid Miner
  • The Stolen Lamp Front Cover
    The Stolen Lamp
  • The Unorthodox Engineers The Pen And The Dark Front Cover
    The Unorthodox Engineers The Pen And The Dark