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A while ago, most of the Federation Star Fleet was wiped out by aliens, who have now built a gigantic spaceship, intending to destroy the Earth. You are a stowaway on the ship and you must shut down the plasma drive engines and recover some data packs containing vital information. The aliens are still waiting for you, though... The game uses an icon system which allows you to jump, pick up weapons and ammunition, shoot, and enter doors. This might work if you had a mouse, but you don't, and when you've selected an icon, it's usually too late. It has nice graphics and atmospheric music which increases the sense of loneliness, but the control system makes it too tough.
You play the part of a spaceman who has been sent on a mission to a distant space station to re-initialise the various power terminals which have stopped working. You do this by whizzing around using your trusty jet-pack, avoiding the station's defence mechanisms (lasers, androids etc.) and finding and using various items to proceed (for example, using pass cards to enter rooms). This is actually a pretty enjoyable game, with nice, bold, colourful graphics and decent sound, but I, being useless at 'jet-pack' games like this, just found it far too hard, with its masses of items and bad guys zooming towards you as soon as you enter the room. That said though, if you like adventure games, and take the time to map it out, and generally stick with it, you'll find there's a good, addictive game here.
Nothing too groundbreaking here. You control a green lizard and must wander around a maze, until you've covered every inch of ground, at which point you go to the next level. Out to kill you are green eyeball monsters, which you can kill temporarily by firing projectiles at them. Add to the mix a few opening/closing doorways and you have Octoplex. Or at least you have the first two levels – the game is far too hard for me to get any further! The enemies fly around the maze at close to the speed of light, there's an ultra-strict time limit, and on top of that, you only have three lives! Yes, it's difficult, but it's still quite addictive and reasonably good fun. Also, it has lovely, colourful graphics and, in my opinion, one of the catchiest tunes on the CPC!
Tyrkos the warrior has been called to the palace of the county of Okkmokk. The Eye of Set, a sceptre belonging to the ruler Fynsk, was stolen from him by the necromancer Atrackses, and guess what Tyrkos – that's you – must do? You are accompanied to an underground entrance which will lead you to Atrackses' lair, but from there, you're on your own, in a dungeon full to the brim with hazards and traps. This is a multiple choice text adventure in which you go from room to room and decide what to do from a list of options, many of which prove to be fatal. A small picture accompanies each room, and most of them are quite good. However, the text is rather difficult to read at times, even if you understand French, and the colours used in some rooms make it even more so. Still, it's an enjoyable game with lots of exploration to do.
Yes, there was an official Father Christmas game, although sadly it's not much good. It's Christmas Eve and Santa has to get all the presents delivered to children around the world – but the elves have stolen the parts of his sleigh! You have to find them, but bump into an elf and it'll run away and steal your part again. When you've built the sleigh, you get to choose some presents, and then it's time to deliver some presents to four continents. It's clear from the start that the game is for young children, but the graphics are hardly going to appeal to them, and anyone else can complete the game on their first go, hence the low mark!
Speedboat racing is more violent in the year 2049. Competitors try to force each other off the course, and firing missiles at each other to ensure that they win. You race around four courses, steering yourself between the buoys that mark the course, and avoiding crashing into your competitors. If you finish first or second, you can go to the next round. As I mentioned, you can use missiles to destroy the other racers, but you only have a very limited number of them for each course and they're highly inaccurate. The graphics are up to Titus' high standards and the scrolling is very fast, but the other competitors always seem to crash into you as they overtake you, losing you so much time that progressing to the next course is impossible. A good-looking game that suffers from being frustratingly difficult.
This was one of the earliest games for the CPC and, boy, it shows. An archaeological dig is excavating some pyramids in Egypt, but there are mummies lurking in the chambers and they're out to get you! Each chamber has twenty boxes, and to get out, you must uncover the Pharaoh's sarcophagus and the key. The graphics are basic and the music is just an irritating ten-second tune repeated over and over again, but it can be switched off. It starts off being fun but there's no variety in it, and it's also too easy.
Based on the anarchic, short-lived comic from the late 1980s (basically, Viz for kids), Oink! takes such memorable, hilarious characters as Tom Thug, Pete's Pimple and Rubbishman and somehow manages to deliver a truly boring game. The concept is different – complete three mini-games to unlock frames of a comic strip which can be read on completion. Unfortunately, the mini-games – a Breakout clone, a maze game and a horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up (the only one that actually features an Oink! character!) are so dull, difficult and repetitive that you'll never want to get that far in the game. The graphics are OK – nice and colourful – but the sound is unremarkable and the whole game is a waste of what could, no, should have been a great license!
Show your talent as a matador as you chase Alfonso the bull around the ring, then coax him towards you by waving your red cloak. Then, when he's close, pull the cloak away. If you manage to do this enough times without being gored by Alfonso, a loop will be thrown into the ring, which you have to place around the bull's neck. If you do this, you then repeat the exercise, but Alfonso will be angrier. This game was released in the UK under the name of Raging Beast, and the game certainly got me into a rage. The controls are extremely unresponsive and getting the matador to move in the direction you want is annoying. There's hardly any variety in the game, either – you just do the same moves over and over again.
Round blob Olli and his girlfriend Lissa are being held captive in a spooky castle by the ghost of Sir Humphrey. To become invisible (and thus scarier), Sir Humphrey needs eight ingredients to make a special potion. The ingredients are scattered all over Shilmoore Castle and Lissa is busy stirring the cauldron. So this leaves you, as Olli, to search the castle for the ingredients. Man, is this game difficult! Each room has ghosts floating around that you have to jump over to proceed, or it's back to the entrance of the room with you. Believe me when I say these jumps have to timed exactly to make it over the bad guys! On top of this you have a very strict timer which depletes whenever you touch an enemy – which is often! It's a shame, really, because the difficulty spoils what is basically a fun game.
See also: Olli and Lissa III: The Candlelight Adventure.
Olli needs to fix his car, but all the pieces are lost and he needs to find them. First you must find a magnifying glass to search for the pieces, and then you must find a spanner, before taking each piece to the basement where the car is to be assembled. The graphics are nice, especially the cute animations of Olli, and you can also choose what type of car Olli wants to build. On the other hand, the controls are tricky, and it doesn't take much of a fall for him to lose energy. In addition, to go back to a room that you've just left, you have to enter the door on the other side of the room, which is very confusing. And if you're wondering about the second of the three Olli and Lissa games, it was never released for the CPC!
See also: Olli and Lissa: The Ghost of Shilmoore Castle.
Compete in five Olympic events – weightlifting, canoeing, the 100m sprint, shooting and discus throwing. No joystick waggling is required here; instead, for three of the five events, you have to select your speed or power by stopping a rapidly spinning dial at the correct moment. Canoeing involves negotiating your canoe through a course of randomly placed rocks, while the shooting event is very easy indeed, and requires you to move your crosshair at the slowly moving skeets that are flung into the air. The graphics are very basic indeed, the animation is poor and very flickery, and the gameplay is ridiculously simple. After playing this game for a few minutes, you'll want to play something else instead.
Professor Locaten and Cosmic Sister Omega are trying to find a door that unites the earthly dimension and the Omega Dimension, but they will have to travel through the ruins of the Immaculate Garden and the Balunga caverns to reach it. This is a platform game in which you must dodge all manner of nasty creatures and jump over various obstacles. You can switch characters at will, allowing you to use one character's abilities over the other in order to overcome certain situations. However, the first part of the game is much too difficult; most of the creatures are very tricky to kill, and avoiding them while jumping over a large hole or river is more a matter of luck than skill. The game is also a Spectrum port, so the graphics lack colour, and the sound effects and music are terrible.
This text and graphic adventure takes place in mediaeval Arabia. You're Saad, an inhabitant of Omeyad City. You must meet several characters who will give you missions to complete. Of course, there are many useful items to find around the city and many places to explore (which means a lot of loading from disc, too!). The graphics are really good, and the face of your character in a window shows his health and feelings. Each time you meet someone, their face appears on the screen. There are too few sound effects but the game is interesting, with characters who seem to live a life of their own in the city. You'll sometimes feel lost, but the plot is deep enough to keep you trying to progress.
Both snooker and pool are on offer in this game. You can play either the computer or a friend, and it's also possible to practice on your own. The computer can play at one of three skill levels – novice, average and expert – but even on the novice level, you'll probably have some trouble beating it. Aiming the white ball correctly is tricky, and if you're playing snooker, inaccurate. Of course, the computer's aim is a lot better, although it makes the occasional foul as well. The graphics are reasonably good for this sort of game, although the pool balls are very blocky indeed. It's a shame that it's rather difficult to play a proper game of snooker or pool.
You have been flown to the planet Andromadous, where eight Ramboids are running amok in a maze. You have to guide at least four of them, in the correct order, into a teleporter where they can be transported to Earth. To do this, you control a droid, which can also drill tunnels. If you manage this, you can go to the next level – and there are 20 of them. It's an original concept, and the music is good, but I found it far too difficult (I've never been able to complete the first level!), and the colours are very depressing indeed.
Darts fans will instantly recognise what this game is about – the oche is the line on the floor from where the players throw their darts. This is one of the earliest darts games for the CPC, and it certainly shows. It's written entirely in BASIC, complete with crude graphics and sound effects. Most darts games use an erratically moving hand to aim your darts with, but in this game, you move two pointers at the bottom and right of the board in order to aim. To make things less predictable, the dart will often land some way off where you intended it to go. The problem with this approach is that winning the game becomes almost entirely a matter of luck rather than skill. You also can't play against the computer; you have to find a human opponent to play against. This is definitely a game to be avoided.
Within a huge maze lurks six flasks containing toxic chemicals. You have to find all the flasks within one hour, but there are mutant monsters which are also out to get you! Unfortunately, the flasks are in different places in each game, which makes things even worse, and they drain your energy very quickly if you touch them. There are various other things which can be collected, such as mushrooms, smart bombs and bonuses, and while the graphics are colourful, the game is too difficult to warrant any long-term interest.
Eight members of an assault team are trapped on an enemy island, and it's your job to rescue them in your armoured helicopter. Some of them are easily found, but the rest are hidden in buildings which you must bomb in order to rescue them. Each one has to be lifted into the helicopter and returned to base, one at a time. Of course, there are enemy tanks, boats, guns and helicopters out there to stop you! The graphics are absolutely excellent and the music and sound effects are good too, but it's the scrolling which slows the game down and spoils things a bit.
The evil dictator Lee Ho Fook has invaded a neighbouring country. If he is not stopped, he will also take over your country. You are an officer in your country's army, which recently overthrew the previous dictator who ruled it. From the moment you see and play this game, you will immediately notice that it has been heavily influenced by Operation Wolf. Both the graphics and gameplay are extremely similar indeed, and this game is almost an exact clone of it. Just shoot everything which appears on the screen while trying to conserve your ammunition! The music on the menu is disappointing, but the graphics are colourful and well drawn and the pace is quite hectic. Even though it's rather easy (if you don't bother shooting the 'planes), it's still a great game.
Tension is mounting in the Middle East and several important oil bases are at risk, so the US Naval Air Force have initialized Operation Hormuz – sending you in your fighter jet to take out several enemy missile bases. It would be a tough job in real life, but it's even harder here! As soon as you start, you're bombarded from all sides by enemy fire, and must have the reflexes of Superman to get very far! Your jet has four different weapons to take out enemies on the ground, on the sea and in the air. To be honest, it's all a bit too much for my little brain to take in, especially at the speed this game plays at! The graphics are good, and the sound effects are also good (there's an excellent tune on the options screen) but it's basically just Harrier Attack with knobs on.
More hostages have been kidnapped, but this time they're being held deep in the African jungle. Firstly, you have to travel to the enemy's ammunition depot before going to the hideout where the hostages are being kept. Next, you must get into your boat and sail to the enemy HQ, where the final confrontation awaits. The game features a novel restarting system, where the number of continues you get depends on how well you're doing, although I'm not sure this is entirely a good thing. It is a difficult game with more enemies on the screen at once, and worse, you can't see who you're firing at! The scrolling isn't very good either, and the graphics on the normal CPC version are horrible at times. A cartridge version of the game is also available.
See also: Operation Wolf.
Five hostages are trapped in a concentration camp deep in the jungle, and you must rescue all of them. Your journey starts at the enemy's headquarters, before going into the jungle to the ammunition dump, and then on to the concentration camp where the hostages are then flown out. The screen scrolls horizontally and you just shoot at all the enemy soldiers, helicopters and tanks, but make sure you don't run out of ammo! The graphics are brilliant and there's lots of explosions to be heard, along with a little tune. It's all action and it's an excellent game.
See also: Operation Thunderbolt.
A spaceship pilot receives a signal from the spacecraft Orion Prime, but soon realises that the crew has been decimated by an unidentified illness and he must escape a certain death, but not before understanding why this has occurred... With an intriguing storyline that captures the interest of any gamer, Orion Prime quickly puts you into a world of insecurity and questions that desperately seek an answer. The atmosphere of this game is something that can be understood only by playing it. The graphics are amazing, simply state of the art for the CPC. They use all of the available palette, and with precise shadowing, the result is magnificent. The sound is crystal clear and the game itself is huge; there are so many places to explore and the storyline keeps evolving. The grab factor is dangerously addictive. Overall, an experience not to be missed.
Falling asleep at the wheel, you die in a car crash... and you awake in hell. You must now find the way out to the world of the living. Well, it's easier said than done because it's going to be a long road! During the first hours, this French adventure game is really addictive. The graphics are good, there are a lot of places to explore and many characters to interact with (this game was only released on disc). As in many other text adventure games, you can only use a few words to progress in your quest. But the problem here is that many essential items are not mentioned when you explore a place, so you can often only rely on the graphics! To make it harder, some actions are a little far-fetched and finding the exact syntax is sometimes really hard! However, if you love long and (very) difficult adventure games, try this one!
See also: Sauvez Yurk.
Race along the waterways of six cities in your speedboat, doing your best to avoid other competitors and crashing into them or the scenery. You must complete six laps of each waterway, and at each end of the course, there are buoys which you must approach slowly in order to turn around. You'll be lucky if you manage to complete two laps, however. The other competitors are very inconsiderate and regularly get in your way, and you always come off worst. While the presentation is astonishingly good (the animated sequences are a particularly nice touch), the game itself could have been so much better.
Four outlaws – Butch Moonwalk, Joey the Kid, Scarface Sam, and Mister No Name – are wanted, and as the sheriff, you've got to hunt them down and capture them. Each of the four levels takes you on a stroll through a particular town, shooting the cowboys that appear in groups from the left and right of the screen, and shooting barrels which may reveal bonus items – or a bomb. It sounds like a reasonable enough game, but it's not. The graphics are terrible (another awful Spectrum port) and while the music on the title screen is OK, the sound effects are useless, and the game is too slow and difficult to be of any interest whatsoever.
The new RP2-16 spacecraft is capable of approaching the speed of light. While testing it, you suddenly enter another world, full of aliens and strange landscapes. The game is a straightforward space shoot-'em-up with eight levels, and all you can do is blast aliens and collect coins that allow you to upgrade your weapon temporarily. When you've shot enough aliens, an icon appears on the screen which takes you to a bonus sub-level, which you must survive in order to go to the next level. It's not at all easy, especially since waves of aliens often appear right on top of your ship and cost you a life, and even worse, the backgrounds are so brightly coloured that by the third level, it's impossible to see what's going on! Nice graphics but not so nice gameplay.
This game is well known for being one of the worst coin-op conversions to be seen; it really is terrible. You're racing in your Ferrari with some beautiful girl in the passenger seat and have to get to the next checkpoint within the time limit, while dodging the traffic, which gets heavier as you go further. At the end of each stage, the road branches in two, and with five stages, there are lots of routes to take. This variety doesn't excuse the fact that the graphics are average and the only sound to be heard is the screeching of your tyres when going round the corner. In fact, you're supposed to listen to the audio tape provided while playing the game – what cheek! It's really slow as well.
See also: Out Run Europa, Turbo Outrun.
Terrorists have stolen some top secret documents which you need to deliver to Berlin. The chase starts in England and takes in France, Spain and Italy as well. Why do the terrorists not take a much shorter route? Anyway, the game consists of seven very long levels, and as with the other two games in the series, you must reach the end of each level within the time limit. The graphics are excellent, and the game is particularly noteworthy for the remarkable amount of scenery which lines the roads – yet despite this, it's still very fast indeed. Unfortunately it's not much fun to play. Extra ammunition and turbos appear on the road occasionally, but it's difficult to collect them. Also, if the police catch you, or you run out of time, you must go all the way back to the start of the level, which really spoils the gameplay.
See also: Out Run, Turbo Outrun.
Overkoban was an entrant in CPCWiki's 16KB ROM game development competition held in 2013. The game begins with an amazing tune. Personally speaking, this is one of the best CPC tunes ever. The game has 50 levels and it is a brilliant puzzle game. The player needs to move the boxes to the correct positions to progress to the next level. The graphics are good and colourful but there is almost no in-game sound. Nevertheless, the music is simply amazing. The gameplay is great; the levels are very well designed and the difficulty level rises progressively. The grab factor is stronger than the grab of a wrestler! Overall, any CPC gamer needs to have at least one look at this terrific game. These are the fullest 16 kilobytes of mind-bending action you will ever experience!
The world has been devastated, the ozone layer disappeared long ago and so people have to live in isolated underground cities. Only the overlanders dare to face the perils of the outside world, delivering cargo between cities in their heavily armed cars. That is, for a price. Needless to say that the money earned for each delivery will allow you to buy better weapons and improvements for your car. Regarding graphics and sound, Overlander is quite an average game, almost a Spectrum conversion. Nevertheless, the gameplay makes it an interesting game, with a Mad Max touch that the player will enjoy, at least for a while.
You have been transported from Earth to the land of Do. Your name is now Oxphar and your quest is to find the blue stone of Savanah. Do is a surreal land of fantasy in which you will meet many different kinds of characters, both human and non-human. At the start of the game, you are carrying nothing, but picking up a bank card will allow you to access the armoury. Objects can be taken from it and used appropriately, but this is where this French adventure game disappoints. It's not at all obvious what the objects are; you can't examine them, or your surroundings, and you can't talk to any of the characters. Most players will have considerable difficulty in working out the use of the large majority of the objects. The pictures accompanying each location are astoundingly beautiful and well drawn, but they're wasted on a mediocre game such as this one.