The aliens are invading your home planet. Can you fly in the Freedom Fighter and destroy them all? Yes, this is yet another space shoot-'em-up, and it's not very good at all. The aliens appear at the top of the screen and move steadily downwards, firing bullets and releasing concussion bombs. If a bullet hits you, or a bomb hits the bottom of the screen, you lose a life. Fortunately the bombs can be defused by picking them up (!). The graphics may be cute and colourful, but they are also very flickery indeed. The programmer may only have been 14 years old when he developed this game, but a poor game is a poor game. At least the digitised speech that says, "Get ready!" before each level is fairly clear.

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4

Fres Fighter II Turbo, as its name implies, is a Street Fighter II-style fighting game and perhaps the most advanced of its kind on the CPC. It is a huge game spanning four disc sides, with very detailed MODE 1 graphics and a nice soundtrack along with nice special effects. The colours used change from stage to stage, and because of the ultra-detailed graphics, they look great! The game intro is one of the best I have witnessed on the CPC. The gameplay speed can be adjusted and the controls are easy to learn. There are also special moves for each of the six selectable contestants. Moreover, there are several game modes, including one for 16 players! On the whole, this is by all means a masterpiece for the CPC, from start to finish.

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10

Friday the 13th
(Domark, 1986)
Reviewed by CPC4eva

Based on the movie of the same name, this is a graphic adventure game. The loading screen is quite gory for the time and you hear a bellowing scream which I thought was quite well adapted. You play the role of one of the movie characters and you must find Jason before he kills off your friends. The grounds of the playing area are graphically quite basic-looking but do the job in its own sort of way. You do get the feeling it's a bad place, especially with the atmospheric type of tunes that play throughout and change with the screen, as well as the bellowing screams you hear as Jason attacks your friends. To stop Jason and save your friends from a gruesome death you must find objects and then find Jason, who is identified by being dressed in black, and kill him before he kills you.

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5

Another classic game for the Plus machines only, Frogger puts us in the position of a frog that must cross an avenue full of traffic and a dangerous river! This very enjoyable game is from the early 1980s era – a time when gameplay was the alpha and the omega of gaming. The graphics are colourful, and faithful to the original coin-op game, while the sound is equally good. One problem regarding the gameplay is that you cannot move Frogger diagonally, thus making progress through each level more difficult and sometimes frustrating. Nevertheless, this game provides strong grab factor and can give the player much entertainment.

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7

Guide the frogs across the busy road without being squished, then jump across the river using the turtles and logs and put five frogs in the holes on the other side of the river. Yes, it's Frogger time again. This version has colourful graphics and several merry little melodies which play in the background while you're guiding the frogs home. At first it's not too difficult, but the traffic becomes so heavy by the third level that crossing the road seems to be almost impossible and you won't really want to play any further.

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6

A squad of troops has been sent to infiltrate enemy bases. Each troop member takes it in turn to enter and explore each base, firing bullets from his automatic MK gun, and lobbing grenades at turrets, guns and soldiers in trenches. While you're doing all of this, your real aim is to find a bag containing sensitive documents which has been carelessly placed somewhere in the base, and then go to the laboratory to complete the level. Extra grenades and upgrades to your gun are readily available, and there is a bottle of elixir which restores your strength. The graphics are fairly good, although the sound effects could be better, and despite the game being slightly slow, it's still nice to play.

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7

The planet of Cosmia has been taken over by monsters, who are capturing and imprisoning the inhabitants, who are known as Kreezers. You play the part of a Kreezer called Hickey, who has just escaped from his cage and must venture through caverns filled with monsters and other hazards, rescuing five other Kreezers along the way. Hickey and the other Kreezers look and behave much like a slinky toy, and the controls take a lot of getting used to. It's very difficult to position yourself to jump or shoot at a monster when it's about to collide with you, and it can be frustrating to play at first as you lose life after life. However, if you stick with it, you will progress and hopefully find this game to be an enjoyable one, with the added bonus of colourful graphics.

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8

This is not one of the better fruit machine games, I can tell you! OK, there's the three reels that you find on any fruit machine, with badly drawn cherries, strawberries, lemons, bells, bar symbols and £1 signs; but the screen looks so bare while you're spinning the reels. Neither do the reels actually scroll properly as they do in real life; some coloured blobs appear instead. There are a few extras which allow you to gamble some cash, such as 'winner spinners', and nudges are also available, but I wouldn't bother playing this game.

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3

There aren't exactly many great fruit machine games about – after all, you can't win any money from them! Then again, you can't lose any, either... This one is crammed with extra games with enticing names such as 'Skill Climb' and 'Winning Streak', to win (or more likely, lose) some more money, and there's lots of digitised speech which you can actually make out. You can also decide to stop at any time if you think you've won enough money, which is nice. The graphics are a feast of colour and the music is seriously funky.

See also: Fruit Machine Simulator 2.

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7

There really is little difference between this game and its predecessor – it's just that the array of extra money-making features is so great as to be bewildering. However, there's something about the game that doesn't make it just as appealing. Perhaps it's the absence of any digitised speech, although some may consider that a good thing. Perhaps it's that the graphics aren't quite as colourful. Perhaps it's the tune, which is jolly but nowhere near as good as that in the original game. I don't know, but I prefer the original Fruit Machine Simulator to this sequel.

See also: Fruit Machine Simulator.

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6