Personal Computer News


Jet Boot Jack

Author: Simon Williams
Publisher: English
Machine: Amstrad CPC464

 
Published in Personal Computer News #110

JET BOOT JACK

Originally for the Spectrum and Commodore 64, Jack has made the transition to the Amstrad very ably - no doubt by using the famed power of his jet-boots.

Jet Boot Jack is a platform game of sorts, but with a rather different scenario. The space-age jogger has to empty each screen of the musical notes suspended at head-height along the five levels of platforms.

As well as headbanging the notes, Jack can recharge his boots by knocking into the vinyl pods, but the outcrops of solid rock and assorted weirdos hanging from the ceilings should be avoided. Even experienced nutters have to draw the line somewhere.

Jet Boot Jack

To move from one level to the next, Jack slides into one of the paternoster-style elevators which connect the platforms. When he is in full flight he can jump the gap left behind a moving lift but should he stop in the gap or run into the lift itself, he loses a life.

There are several neat extra features. You can restart in the screen in which you expired, you can jump up and down on top of a weirdo until it loosens its grip and drops to the floor and you get a bonus for ducking under the vinyl pods rather than taking fuel from them.

Skill modes govern the number of weirdos and the amount of fuel available on each screen, and there's a set of demonstration screens if you want to sit back and rest. The jolly little tunes must be designed to dement the unwary.

Even though it's another conversion, it's worth having. But when are software houses going to start writing in earnest for the Amstrad? There are more than 200,000 in the UK crying out for original games.

Simon Williams

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