Personal Computer News


Red Baron
By Lothlorien
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Personal Computer News #060

Curse You, Red Baron

Curse You, Red Baron

In this World War One aerial combat game you unfortunately don't play the part of Snoopy battling against the Red Baron; instead you are a pilot in a Sopwith Camel, and apart from avoiding Jeff Minter you must face up to either one or two German aircraft.

Objectives

The easiest of the nineteen skill levels pits you against inexperienced pilot Horst Krankel, and the hardest against the two planes of Lothar von Richtofen and his brother Manfred, the Red Baron himself. The screen shows the view from your cockpit and the purpose, of course, is to manoeuvre the enemy into your sights and make the skies free for democracy.

In Play

Red Baron

The cassette comes with nine pages of notes, and the game itself is a compromise between a tactical battle and a scaled-down flight simulator. Thankfully for those of us who have difficulty keeping a 747 in the air, the Sopwith Camel's controls are limited to more simple things like height and speed.

The opening menu offers five options plus Finish. The first is Enemy Aircraft Spotting, which runs through the positions of the planes seem from your cockpit. This is followed by a training flight to get you used to the controls. These are logically arranged; the left and right arrows move you 45 degrees in either direction, up arrow is straight on, and F, S, C and D for Faster, Slower, Climb and Dive; with M for Machine-gun fire.

Another option is to choose the level of play. The first ten provide single opponents, the final nine two planes. You can also design your own game, making it easier or well-nigh impossible. Finally there's a campaign game, in which you start at level one and must go through all the levels.

Red Baron

You have four views from your cockpit: front, back and to either side. The instrument panel beneath shows speed, altitude and range for both you and your enemy (or enemies), as well as a 'd' for damage points: when these reach zero it's time for a plummet.

It has to be said that the game is rather a plodder, so if you demand supersonic action it's not for you. The fact that it is in Basic limits it somewhat.

Verdict

The graphics are limited but convincing enough, and while this isn't as good as it might have been (I'd like to have seen a machine code version with faster action and more variety in the enemy planes' position), it's still not bad if you fancy your chances of flying a Camel.

Mike Gerrard

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