Reviews

The fourth ICL games compilation pretty much follows the same route as their earlier efforts. Four more games, all ZX81 ports, written in BASIC:

Docking the Spaceship is a very simple game, but still quite a playable one. You've got to manoeuvre your spacecraft around the back of a space station and inside to the docking bay. It'd be a doddle were it not for the half-decent treatment of momentum that adds a touch of fun to the proceedings.

Journey into Danger is a simple RPG. You travel through a maze looking for monsters to slay and treasure to pick up. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valour and you'll need to run away from fights where the odds are against you, but to maximize your score you've got to take a few chances especially when time is running down and you need to head for the exit. It's quite a decent game by 1982 standards and the one I spent more time on than all the other ICL games combined on the ZX81.

Invasion from Jupiter is, essentially, a turn based shoot 'em up. If this sounds like an awful idea for a game, you're quite right.

Escape rounds out the bunch. It's got you running around dodging a minelaying monster. There are three hidden exits, but you'll only find them by running around at random and hopefully not dying. It's not awful, but it's still far from brilliant.

With an utter diamond in the rough in the shape of Journey into Danger, and a couple of other playable games, this is far and away the best of the ICL games tapes. It's still nowhere near as technically proficient as the Psion games though and has dated far worse.