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1989-04-05
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7KB
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152 lines
##################
# #
# BUDGET GAMES #
# #
# Dave Mooney #
# #
##################
A concept that has been with us since the early days of the Spectrum is
that of budget priced games. These are often older lines that are reduced
in price to create a new market and sell to those who didn't buy the
first time round. Others are simpler games that would not sell at the
full price (although some software houses do try!).
I have been having a look at some of the Micromagic range from Goodman
International. Are they poor cousins of mainstream games or a good way to
buy low priced software? Read on...
MAGIC DARTS & EASY MONEY - GOODMANS £3.95
=========================================
There are two games on this disc and selection is made from an auto-
loading menu.
The first, Magic Darts allows you to play a game of darts without getting
a massive beer-belly or nicotine stains up to the elbow. The game suffers
from the dreaded STOS joystick/firebutton syndrome and although it could
probably be cured by moving the program files to an AUTO folder I
couldn't be bothered finding out.
There are three basic options to choose from: The number of players (1 or
2), the starting score (301 or 501) and normal darts or 'round the
clock'. No doubles are needed to start, but they are to finish.
Control is very simple. Move a cross-hair cursor to the position you want
to aim for and press fire. This causes a marker to run up and down a bar
to the left of the board and has to be stopped as close to the height
that you are aiming for. If the fire button is held another indicator
begins to move across the screen, this is the left-right orientation of
the throw. Stopping the marker dead centre on both will give a perfect
throw, whereas if the up-down is out it is possible to throw slightly off
centre andhit a better area of the board.
Thoughout the game various digitised sound effects will be heard
depending on the action. Darts will bounce off the wire with a
'BIIOOONNNNNNGGGGG!' , 180 gets the famous saying, missing the board
altogether gets a 'MOOOO!!!!', winning a game gives 'YABA DABA DOO!'.
There are a few others, but I'll leave you to discover them for
yourselves.
Playing the game on your own is fairly pointless, but get a few mates
around and the game becomes great fun. Especially when Mick scores over a
hundred and the pressures on to finnish with a double top. Magic Darts is
a very simple game with a lot of playability.
Easy Money is a fruit machine simulator. I have always found this type of
game to be fairly pointless as all that happens is some reels spin, money
is lost or won and the occassional feature comes up. At the end of the
day all that you have is sore eyes and a headache from the flashing
lights.
With this version there are very few features. Nudges up or down and
gamble. The nudges occur only occassionally and are usually too few to do
anything with. The gamble feature is a joke as it is possible go gamble
winnings from 20p to 10 pounds, but instead of gambling one step lower or
higher it is one step higher or loose the lot.
One 'feature' that we did find was when gambling it was possible to catch
the rythm easily and shoot straight up to maximum. This inevitably meant
that the kitty had hundreds of pounds in it. The program was well written
and the graphics are very good, but I didn't really see the point of the
exercise.
Overall the two programs on disc makes it good value for money.
SPACE MONSTERS - GOODMANS £3.95
===============================
Ah, this is an oldie. I remember sitting typing a listing for a version
of this game into my Spectrum from Computer and Video Games. The concept
must have been the first ladders and platforms game out. The idea is that
you are in a cavern somewhere with some space monsters who want you for
dinner. There are three or four floors (platforms) connected by ladders.
The air supply is running out and you have to kill off the monsters
before it is possible to escape to a harder level . (How many O levels
did you say it took to be an astronaut).
To dispatch the aliens you have to dig a hole on a platform and then
entice one of them across it whereupon it will fall in and get stuck.
Next you clobber it with your spade until it falls through and smashes
itself on the floor below. The first couple of levels are fairly easy
with slow moving , easy kill critters. Too soon they become faster and a
lot meaner and it takes two or three holes, one above the other to kill
these kids. If you don't get them away right off they mutate and come
after you FAST!
The game does require some planning and logic as a mutated monster is
something that does not bear thinking about. Definately one for those who
like simple, fast games.
TRAIN SET II - GOODMANS £3.95
=============================
Train Set is basically a network of rails (look like pipes to me) which
have interconnections and movable points. Around this network are various
coloured dots which have to be collected by the train of the same colour.
The trains have four speeds and reverse unlike BR who seem to have one
speed and it's not fast.
So, of we go. I get the first train on its way and forget about the
points. CRASH!! It runs into anothers shed. That was fun, where is the
start button. It's back at the intro screen which has to be loaded, START
pressed and the game reloaded. A bit more careful this time sees me
getting one train out and a couple of mailbags collect. Being brave I
bring another out and the first runs over anothers mailbag. Wham! The
mailbag explodes taking out a section of track. If the trains are left
unattended in their sheds for any length of time the drivers get fed up
and come out on there own. This invariably leads to a crash.
The trains look like dots and the track like pipework. It must be an
abstract representation on the controllers panel. Noise effects are put
to good use the screens fade in and out impressively. Control is mainly
by mouse, but you have to press a key after crashing and at the title
screen. This is annoying since the first reaction is to press a mouse
button.
Once into the game it really is quite fun to play. I can't be more
enthusiastic as I feel the delay between the game ending and restarting
is too long.
CONCLUSION
The Micromagic games appear to offer the buyer good value for money. Some
are origional while others are simply varioations on old themes. They are
not perfect and won't appeal to everyones taste, but if you do like
playing these or any of the games in the range then at £3.95 you will
probably find them to be very good value.