| ZX-81 Software Scene |
IF YOU have ever fancied yourself as a military strategist, you should enjoy Fort Apache for the 16K ZX-81. In it you assume the role of a general with 300 men in his command. Your aim is to attack a fort and destroy its walls and, for each day of your siege, you must assign men to such tasks as building ramps, ladders and battering rams, manning cannons, collecting ammunition and fetching rations.
You then decide whether to attack the gate of the fort, scale its walls, or tunnel beneath them. At the end of the day, the computer will tell you the result of the engagement, including how many men you have lost and how many rations have been stolen.
If you lose more than half of your troops you have lost the game. You must remember that if you do not leave sufficient men at your base camp, the fort defenders might sally forth and attack you; if you do not feed your troops adequately, they may desert.
In spite of the fact that battering rams and ramps seem inappropriate weapons for attacking an Apache fort, the options and results of your decisions are reasonably realistic, making it an absorbing game, despite its simple presentation and lack of graphics.
Provided you do not suffer a particularly disastrous defeat, you can continue your siege for days, keeping any supplies of food and weapons you have accumulated from one day to the next. You can also try different tactics to see if you can outwit the defenders.
The siege of Fort Apache is produced by Contrast Software, Hampshire. It costs £4.95.
THREE GAMES are included on the cassette which supplements a book, ZX-81/TS1000 Programming for Young Programmers, published by McGraw Hill.
Two of the games, Bomb Run and Mazer, are written in machine code for 1K machines and manage to provide plenty of action and entertainment. In Bomb Run, you are in an aircraft which loses altitude on each run and you must bomb various buildings out of your way before you crash into them. You have only a limited number of missiles, so it is important to use them sparingly and accurately.
Mazer is a simple maze game in which the object is to avoid the ghost and stay on the move as long as possible. Each time you move, you score a point. Novices will enjoy the ease of scoring and the practical layout of the keyboard; any key in the top row moves you up, any key in the bottom row moves you down, and the left- and right-hand sides of the keyboard will move left and right respectively. Both games allow you to start again easily if you crash or are eaten by ghosts.
Golems for the 16K Spectrum is a more complicated strategy and fantasy adventure game in which your object is to outwit the Lord of the Black Tower.
The cassettes also include programs which are listed in the book, including Hangman, Sketcher and Owl Swoop, with additional graphics and other improvements.
Together the book and cassette form an excellent introduction to Basic programming on the ZX-81. They are available from McGraw Hill Book Co, Maidenhead, Berkshire. The cassette costs £5.95.
YOU WILL need at least one opponent, writing materials and plenty of time for Cyborg Wars, produced by Stratagem Cybernetics for the Timex Sinclair or the 16K ZX-81.
A complex strategy game for up to four players, Cyborg Wars is an imaginary galactic conflict between four nations of androids battling over the resources of a small asteroid. Each player takes the role of the ruler of one of the nations and can send spies to enemy states, convert farmers to soldiers, stockpile rations, or decide to launch an attack against any other nation. The outcome of such battles is decided by the computer, and the ruler's fortunes will fluctuate accordingly.
The eventual aim is either to establish dominion over the entire asteroid or to depose all the other rulers. The game continues from year to year, with the computer issuing a report on the state of each country's resources at the end of each year - or round. If 35 years go by without a military confrontation, the ruler who can boast the biggest population is the winner.
The cassette is accompanied by record sheets on which the players can keep track of population figures, spies lost, rations, crops and other vital statistics. The fact that Cyborg Wars has to rely on such old-fashioned methods somewhat detracts from its value as a computer game.
The game is in two parts and the instructions in the accompanying booklet must be followed very closely if the game is to be loaded successfully. It is important not to make typing errors when inputting your password - make sure that you can reproduce them if you make any - or you will not be able to proceed.
Despite those disadvantages it is a carefully thought-out and elaborate game, providing ample scope for entertainment for anyone who has patience and a taste for games involving a mixture of luck and judgement.
Cyborg Wars is available by mail order only from Stratagem Cybernetics, New York, USA. The cassette cost $15.
| Spectrum Software Scene |
THE WARLOCK of Firetop Mountain for the 48K Spectrum is the computer version of the popular Penguin Books fantasy adventure of the same name. You can buy the two together in a smartly-presented pack or choose the book or the cassette separately.
The cassette offers a fast and unusual game in which you must imagine you are lost in a vast labyrinth created by the evil warlock to protect himself and his treasures. The labyrinth is haunted by a variety of unspeakable monsters, against which you have only a bow and your sword to defend yourself, and scattered around it are the 15 magic keys you need to open the treasure chest, should you ever manage to locate it.
Even then, your troubles are not over, as you will have to find the exit somewhere in the maze to depart with the treasure.
The unusual feature is the way in which the screen scrolls in four directions, presenting you with a change of scene each time.
The computer generates the maze randomly, and the number of keys needed to move about, open doors, draw the sword and fire arrows adds to the complexity.
Mastering the controls and improving the speed with which you move around the maze make for an addictive pastime and there is the lure of the magic keys, which increase your score dramatically whenever you pick one up.
The lack of incident in the game, with the monsters and keys appearing only rarely, might make it seem monotonous after a time.
It is also a pity that whenever you lose a battle with one of the monsters, which is all too easily done, the game is finished and you have to start again. Some way of recovering from an encounter or of replenishing one's strength along the journey might have added interest to the adventure.
The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is produced by Penguin Books, London. It costs £5.50 on its own or £6.95 in the software pack containing the book and cassette.
IN PLUNDER, for the 48K Spectrum, the scene is set in the 16th century, which makes a welcome change from space travel and aliens. As captain of a British galleon, your task is to patrol the seas and prevent the Spanish bringing back gold across the Atlantic with which to finance their Armada.
Your eventual object is to earn a knighthood for services to your country and also to make sure you outdo your hated rival Sir Francis Drake, who will "fall about laughing" every time you run the ship aground or similarly disgrace yourself.
Plunder also allows you to manoeuvre your ship into port, trade in bazaars to increase your assets, and investigate uncharted islands. In spite of the scope for variety the game provides, it is easy to engage in a repetitive series of sea battles and the slow graphics detract from any advantage it might have over a board game.
It is also a pity that each time you lose a round you have to return to the title page before you can start again. A little seafaring practice should enable you to avoid the pitfalls and derive some entertainment from an interesting concept.
Plunder is produced by Cases Computer Simulations, London, and costs £6.00.
ANYONE who has played Donkey Kong will find Godzilla and the Martians for the 16K Spectrum familiar. The gorilla at the summit of a series of ladders has been changed into a dinosaur which is protecting the girl of your dreams from the evil intent of invading Martians; your object is to get to the top and rescue her before your oxygen supplies run out.
You will have to be very proficient on a keyboard to achieve that aim. As the groups of Martians patrol each level, you have to jump over them one by one and when you manage to reach the next level, you will find a series of man traps which it is all too easy to fall through.
Inexpert players will find the game finishes very quickly and a major disadvantage is that you do not get extra lives but must start each game from the beginning.
More explanation about the scoring system would also have been an improvement. Nevertheless, Godzilla and the Martians will probably appeal to experienced arcade games players who enjoy a challenge to their dexterity. It is available from Temptation Software, Rye, East Sussex and costs £5.95.
THE NAME The Birds and the Bees may conjure idyllic images of peaceful summer days but the new Bug-Byte game for the 48K Spectrum finally will reveal how tough life can be for a bee.
On a screen which scrolls left and right, you must pilot your bee from flower to flower, picking up pollen to earn yourself points, and avoiding hostile birds and centipedes. The more pollen the bee picks up, the heavier it becomes, making it increasingly easy prey for the birds. There is also a limit to the amount of pollen it can carry, so that it has to make periodic trips to the hive to shed its load.
As your score mounts, new hazards will appear; first a swarm of bees and then a bear intent on raiding the hive for its store of honey.
This is not only a genuinely original game but a very entertaining and appealing one. The graphics are attractive and the movements, with the bee swooping uncontrollably up and down and the birds dive-bombing with deadly accuracy, are an ingenious reproduction of real-life conditions in the fields.
Details such as an animated title page, the aircraft which flies a Bug-Byte banner, and the flowers which open as the bee lands all show that a great deal of thought has gone into the product.
The game also offers a degree of difficulty which will satisfy experienced players and lure less-experienced ones to try to improve their skills.
The Birds and the Bees is sold by Bug-Byte Software, Liverpool. It is obtainable from computer branches of W H Smith and costs £5.95.