**** 8-Bit Games Reviews ******************************************* PAGE *** \ / elcome to our second 8-Bit games round up. In this series we will \ /\ / be looking at some of the games available on the \/ \/ 8-Bit machines (C64, Vic 20, Speccy, Master System, NES etc.). We show the game overview, publishers, price, year of release, and the quotes from the boxes of the games. On to this disks selection... Rating system is out of a maximum of 10 ************************************************************************* Big Mac - The Maintenance Man Mastertronic 199 Range 1985 £1.99 Quotes: Ministry of Defence - Confidential data - Authorised personnel only Internal Memmo To:- 007¾ FROM:- Z Mission Code Name - Light Bulb Agent Code Name - Big Mac Agent's Cover - Maintennance Man Mission - To achieve complete shut down of enemy power station Data Currently Available for Mission Light Bulb Intelligence has assessed that there are 15 power vaults. Once you have broken into the enemy security system the air supply is automatically switched off. The air meter will keep you informed of the air you have left to complete your mission. The security system within the station itself will also be activated upon entry, so be on your guard! You will also gain an extra life for every vault you complete up to a maximum of 4 lives. You may also start a game in any power vault that you have already reached before by pressing 'Y' after the game has re-started. Each time you press 'Y' you will move up to the next power vault. Page :- This game is really cool. I have been playing it since 1987 and still can't finish the bloody thing. The game involves you running around rooms and you must reach the exit in them, but you must avoid hammers from the roof, machines that shoot bullets at you from walls, moving platforms, platforms that fall away when you stand on them and much, much more! Rating: 9 Commodore 16/+4 Version Tested ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cave Fighter Blue Ribbon £2.99 Quotes: Potholing used to be such a lonely hobby. Dangerous but lonely! That's one of the reasons Pothole Pete, who you control, took up the hobby in the first place All this changes when you find a new and challenging cave. You make good progress in the enterance hall but your light seems weak. Suddenly the stillness is swept aside by the calls and screeches of many hideous creatures woken by your lamp. A rock fall means that the only way you can escape is by fighting through the chambers one by one. With only limited battery life, your journey soon becomes a race against time as you dodge and shoot creatures which bar your way. Page:- This game is quite fun for a while, you go through the levels and you must shoot the monsters, there are ladders and ropes to swing on and there are puddles you can fall in. The only problem is it gets to hard. Rating: 6 C64 Version Tested Also available on C16/+4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rigel's Revenge Bulldog Software 1987 £1.99 Quotes: Harper and Elliot together formed one of the greatest newsgathering teams of the 22nd Century. Thier coverage of the Re-unification War was carried out by every major Federation comm-network, as the Fleet troops brought the insurgent colonies back into the Federation's grip. Then, one day - in his quest to stay ahead - Eliot went to far. He pursuaded Harper that they should become agents for the Alterian Corps, an influential group dedicated to the cause of peace. In return for their work, the Corps would guarantee them scoop after scoop. Thier mission was to go to Rigel V, where one region still held out against the Federation troops. The rebels claimed to have a Doomsday Machine and would wreak the ultimate revenge if the Federation refused to withdraw from the planet. Elliot was smuggled in by the Alterian Corps as a Rigellian trooper. His mission, to discover the whereabouts of the Doomsday Machine and report to Harper, who was to follow one week later, in his true role as a front- line reporter. Harpers instructions: to meet Elliot, at night, in a certain backstreet in the occupied sector of the town... At the end of Part One, you will be asked to save your game position for Part Two. You should do this several times on a fresh cassette and then reset the machine. Having loaded Part Two, you will be prompted to load your data from Part One. You will only need to do this one. When Harper dies or you quit Part Two and the game restarts in the same way as the first half. Page:- This game certainly has a gripping story line. It is a very good text adventure to play if very hard. It may just be me, but I can't even get out of the dark alley, it keeps responding with things like: HARPER STUMBLES AROUND IN THE DARKNESS, or YOU CAN'T SEE. When I enter commands like NORTH, or LOOK. There are around 50 words it reconises. You can even put in rude words that are not listed in the inlay card like PI*S, or SH*T which it responds with, NOT HERE!! in red text. This is definately one of the better adventure games around. Rating: 8 Commodore 128 version reviewed, also available for C64 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Acornsoft Hits Volume 1 Acornsoft & Superior Software LTD 1985 £9.95 4 Game Pack, Monsters, Magic Mushroom, Planetoid, Maze Maze Maze is a real-time game with fast 3-D graphics. Find your way around the mazes which make up the security system inside the top secret instillation of a rival company. To obtain the secret informat- ion you are looking for, you must search as many of the levels as you can, moving between them in the computer-controlled lift. The corridors are patroled by robot guards armed with rechargeable guns who will shoot you on site, if you can't shoot or avoid them. So you must stay alert at ALL times. Page: - Bloody hell! This game is an excellent graphiced 3-D adventure where you wander around in real-time 3D. A MUST! Panetoid Action Stations! The Aliens are landing! Flying over the planetoid surface your laser-ship speeds to the rescue, firing laser missiles and dodging the enemy and their shell-fire. Save the life-forms while fending off raiders, mutents, bombers, cruisers, spores, and megacytes. Lightening refelxes are required to play this game - the fastest ever seen on a micro! Page: - It's Defender. What more can I say, it is an exact arcade replica with the laser fire and hyper-space! Monsters Page: - This is a version of the excellent C16 game Hektic. There have been other variations of the game I bet but the C16 one is the only other one I have seen. The game basically involves you climbing ladders to avoid the beasts, you then dig at a sutible time and the monsters fall down the hole, you then put the soil back on top of them and they fall down and die. There are monsters that have to be knocked down 4 holes! Quotes:- Pursued by monsters along walls and up and down ladders, your only hope of survival is to outwit them by trapping them in holes which you dig in their path. You can score extra points by dropping the monsters through several levels, and the further you get the more you can score, as the monsters vary and become more devious. Quite an exhausting business, so keep and eye on the oxygen level which drops during each screen and eventually runs out, whereupon you will die. You have three lives however, and can earn another one by scoring 3000 points. Includes score, ladder of high scores, excellent graphics and sound effects. Rating: 10 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- And I'll see you in the next issue with a great review of Gun Law for the C+4. See you then! Nick. ---- PAGE ------------------------------------------------------------------