The Micro User
1st September 1987
Published in The Micro User 5.07
Take ten games from the BBC's dim and distant past, bundle them together on a single disc and sell them for £7.95 - hey presto, you've got Micro Power Magic Volume 2.
Mr. Ee is a wizard with a taste for cherries. Preferring a subterranean variety he tunnels underground for the harvest. His cherry picking is hindered by the evil Umphs who pursue him relentlessly.
Umphs canbe killed by dropping apples on them from a great height, or with an accurately thrown crystal ball. Mr. Ee is a colourful and fun version of the arcade game Mr. Do.
Fort Cybertron is a castle that is built on 16 levels, each containing 16 rooms laid out in a 4x4 grid. Your task is to proceed through each level, locating an increasing number of objects as you go.
The fort is patrolled by a wide variety of droids. Some are harmless unless touched, others will blow you to pieces as soon as you step into view.
The graphics are a little dated, but the game has lost none of its addictive qualities.
Bandits At 3 o'clock is a World War One dogfight game for one or two players. The level of difficulty can be increased by adding airships, enemy flak and clouds. This game has not stood the test of time as well as the first two, the graphics are unexciting and the action slow.
Hell Driver is the next program on the disc. You are presented with a view of a small section of a much larger maze. The aim ofthe game is to drive round the maze as quickly as possible, locating and collecting flags as you go.
On the higher levels you are chased by fire engines and police cars. The latter can be impeded using a smoke screen.
The control keys are user-definable, and if you're lucky they may even steer the car. I took an instant dislike to Helldriver when it was originally released and my opinion hasn't mellowed with time.
Things begin to look up as you load the fourth game, Micro Power's excellent Chess program. For less than 80p you get a program brimming with features. It will analyse chess problems, play a Blitz game (you are both allowed a very short time to make a move), save/load to/from disc and even play a game of chess.
My only quibble is that moves have to be entered using algebraic notation. I would have preferred to use the cursor keys.
Felix In The Factory is a variation on the original Acornsoft game Monsters. The factory is laid out as a ladders and levels style structure. Felix has to collect cans of oil to supply the generator. The building is riddled with a variety of monsters and a huge yellow rat. Strategically place the rat poison, stab the monsters, but remember to keep an eye on the generator fuel level, if the lights go out you're in big trouble.
Qix fans will be pleased to see the inclusion of Frenzy, a game of sub-atomic particles and high speed fingers. Using a combination of cunning and timing you move a robot craft round the screen; as it moves it leaves a trail. Every time you cordon off a portion of screen it is filled with colour and you are awarded points.
Somewhere on the screen is a lepton, a little chap who spends his time ricocheting around the screen. Ultimately you must trap the lepton in one of your enclosures to destroy it. Frenzy is a very competent Qix lookalike.
Years ago, I awarded Positron the coveted title of worst game of the year. Well here it is again folks, flex your trigger fingers and prepare to play the fastest, but most tedious, zapper of all time.
Wave after wave of crudely shaped alien spacecraft attack and your best defence is to thrash the return key while whizzing left and right. Boring.
Relief from all this excitement is provided by two educational programs, the first is a quiz entitled World Geography. Answer questions on capital cities and populations and there are seven levels of difficulty to choose from. The country in question is highlighted on a detailed map of the world.
Junior Maths Pack, the final program, contains three short, relatively simple, games which involve multiplication and division, the use of co-ordinates to locate buried treasure, and a fruit machine number game.
Micro Power Magic 2 contains a selection of games whose quality ranges from above average to garbage, but at ten games for £7.95, what have you got to lose?
