This book of programs offers quality instead of mere quantity. Nineteen are provided - rather than the more common 50 or 100 - and these cover arcade games (ten), adventures (four) and board games (five).
The programs have been well written, by a variety of programmers, and are as good as much of the commercial software available. The 64's special graphics facilities have been well and often originally used, and each program is very cheap at under 40p apiece.
One nice feature of the book is that two of the board games are ones that are not easily played in real life - 3D Noughts and Crosses and Othello, or Reversi. The implementation of Othello is particularly good, and the computer's strategy has been well thought out: it's hard to beat.
The arcade games are also stimulating, although ideas like Skiing and rather hackneyed now. Other games, however, like Descent Into Chaos, are both addictive and enjoyable, and as the games are provided with both joystick and keyboard routines, they have a wide appeal.
The book is let down only by the rather unimaginative adventures, which betray the author's wargaming background.
25th August 1984
