Personal Computer News


Quango

Author: Mike Gerrard
Publisher: Interceptor Micros
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Personal Computer News #090

QUANGO

It's taken me months to remember that a Quango is a Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation, and then along comes Interceptor to inform me that it is in fact a bird that has the power to fly through earth and rock and chase robots. The good news is that it takes ages to hatch out. The bad news is that you're a robot - Angus Fungus - and it's your job to gather the mushrooms in the eight caverns deep below the surface of the planet Sedron in this Dig-Dug variation.

In the first cavern there are passageways leading maze-like towards the ten mushrooms, and as you move (joystick only) you remove patches of soil that fill some of the passages. There are also rocks hanging around, and if you remove the soil from beneath such a boulder it no longer hangs but plummets... Make sure it doesn't land on you, but preferably on the Wrightoid robots that for some reason are chasing you round the passageways. Maybe they just like mushrooms, and while the instructions describe them as "evil but stupid" they certainly show no stupidity in the way they tail you and chase you.

Another hazard for Angus is the giant Quendorian wortweed. When the soil is removed from above one of these little plants it shoots upwards as far as it can, right up Angus's trouser-leg if he's not out of the way a bit sharpish. Even if he is, the plant still blocks the passage. Boulders, too, have a habit of blocking you in, and as well as being a test of joystick dexterity, Quango is also a strategy game as most of the mushrooms are in unreachable places. Fortunately you can pause the game to give you some hope of figuring out what to do, and I found a good tactic was to choose a different mushroom on each foray, spend a little time trying to figure out how to get at this particular one, then hope later to string them all together in one mad dash. However, as I've not yet got out of the first cavern maybe this isn't the tactic to recommend.

Each cavern occupies several screens, and the scrolling movement is very smooth with lots of jaunty music. You're aided too by a supply of bombs, and you have just enough time to plant one of these (using the fire button) and escape. In the four deepest caves there are underground streams.

An excellent game, fast-moving and frustrating, addictive and amusing.

Mike Gerrard

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