Personal Computing Today


Enter The Dragon
By Blaby Computer Games
Dragon 32

 
Published in Personal Computing Today #16

Enter The Dragon

This is a compendium of fourteen games taken from the book Enter The Dragon. Firstly I will review each one individually and then give my overall view at the end.

React. In this game the computer awards points on how quickly you press the key displayed on the screen. The main disadvantage is that it only uses keys 0, 1, 2 and 9. Definitely room for development as it only uses 2K.

Number Crunch. In this game, you have to numerically order the digits one to nine from a tumbled sequence. To do this you are allowed to reverse groups of digits. It is very boring once you learn a simple sequence.

Frog. This is a game where you have to swap two groups of frogs around by making them jump over each other. The graphics and colour were very good. The solution again required a very simple sequence.

Simulation. This simulates fishing fleets and the random geographical forces they undergo. There is no participation by a player - pointless rubbish.

Fruit Machine. This program shows the revolving reels of a fruit machine and there is no participation by the player. The graphics are good and clear, but there is no game.

Bubblesort. This is a program which sorts a maximum of fifteen numbers - I could sort them quicker myself!!

Invader. This slow, simple invader-type game with bad graphics had a too sensitive joystick and unresponsive fire button.

Roadrace. You have to manoeuvre a car between a series of posts which are far too close together. Bad graphics again.

Alien. Here you have to kill the flying aliens. It has reasonable graphics, but no scoring system.

Eliminator. This is a simple version of Skramble, except you have to shoot the saucer which comes and kills your humanoids. The graphics were again reasonable.

Meteor. Here you have to hit the meteors coming towards you. Mediocre graphics again.

Talking. This inputs your speech and outputs it at a later time. Fascinating except for an unfortunate amount of crackling.

Draughts. This game plays draughts well and it has good graphics. However, I don't like the way the pieces are moved.

Adventure. The description of the rooms in this all-text adventure are poor and its vocabulary is limited.

Overall, this tape was very poor. The programs were slow and the keyboard unresponsive. I would have been very disappointed if I had bought it.