Personal Computer News


Blockbusters
By Macsen
Commodore 64

 
Published in Personal Computer News #100

BLOCKBUSTERS

It's time to get the old grey matter working again. Based on the TV series of the same name, Blockbusters is a two-player quiz game that sets out to show if you're a walking encyclopaedia or just a dumb-dumb.

For those who haven't seen the program, the game takes place on a 4 x 4 grid of hexagons. One player plays down the grid and the other across it, each trying to be the first to connect up a row of hexagons.

Kicking off, a hexagon is chosen at random and a general knowledge question comes up at the bottom of the screen. The first player to press his or her button (A or the = keys) gets to answer. The answer always begins with the letter shown in the hexagon.

Blockbusters

If you give the correct answer, the hexagon changes to your colour and you get to choose the next one. If you're wrong, the other player gets a chance to answer. There's a time limit involved and the game makes some allowance for mis-spelled answers.

Question sets are loaded in from tape as required. There are nine levels of play - the questions are the same but the time limit gets shorter.

The game has one or two idiosyncrasies. It doesn't always erase the player's name when overwriting it with the opponent's. If you give no response (by pressing Return only) to a question, the game responds with 'Almost! Try again' and you get another chance.

There are bags of questions. They can be supplemented by purchasing a follow-up program (Questionmaster £5.95) which even lets you generate your own questions.

Blockbusters is great fun, with just the right element of strategy and competitiveness to keep you interested.

Bob Chappell

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