ZX Computing


Gamestape 1
By Fawkes Computing
Sinclair ZX81

 
Published in ZX Computing #13

Gamestape 1

There are four good quality games on this cassette; Dodge-it and Trogan Dragon on the A side and Death Trap and Tablets of Hippocrates on the reverse.

Dodge-it is a variation of the hungry blob-type game. Your character moves anticlockwise following lanes around the screen. Your only control is to change lanes when you reach gaps by the use of the cursor keys. True to tradition, you consume dots and leave crumbs. The second time you travel the same lane you eat crumbs and leave dots and so on. There is also a strawberry which, if eaten, gives you extra points and, of course, the inevitable monster which travels clockwise around the lanes and must be avoided.

This is an unusual but effective game in which your character is always on the move. You cannot reverse direction to escape the monster - once you are in the same lane, that's it! Good fun to play but frustratingly difficult to judge which lane to cross to at the next gap. Dodge-it has four speed levels from learner to expert, and a high score feature.

In Trojan Dragon, the programmer has taken some liberties with popular legend to produce an interesting game.

The problem is that you have to guard your castle at two positions simultaneously. You control the drawbrige but must only allow "goodies" across, and the swordsmen on the battlements must only kill "baddies". The difficulty is in recognising goodies and baddies as they approach these positions so that appropriate action can be taken.

An interesting idea is in the way the game is made more difficult for the experienced player; at the harder levels of play the goodies and baddies are represented by characters which more closely resemble each other. There is also a choice of speed but the speed increases automatically as the game progresses and action can become frenetic.

A very good game which gets exciting as the goodies and baddies approach in ever-increasing numbers.

Death Trap, on the reserve side of the cassette, is a game in whch you move your character around the screen in an attempt to avoid being boxed in by the computer. A rather pedestrian game which nevertheless works well.

Dodge-It, Trojan Dragon and Death Trap and all 100% machine code games. The final game on the cassette, Tablets Of Hippocrates, is a BASIC program and is a role-playing adventure with some 30 locations set in an enchanted forest. Your object is to get the two valuable Tablets hidden deep within the forest. Hazards abound and the forest contains such horrors as a tunnel of death, chamber of echoes and devil's rock.

An imaginative game, not unduly difficult and a good introduction to adventuring for the beginner.

Nick Pearce

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