Reviews

This is a great maze/puzzle/shooter from Hewson's budget Rack-It label, converted by Dominic "Zynaps" Robinson from the original C64 version by Michael Sentinella (which itself seems to be based on obscure Japanese arcade game Raiders5).

You control a tank which has to blast all the blocks on a screen to progress to the next level. Sounds simple, yes? Nope... first of all there's the baddies, which blend into the scenery, have a nasty habit of following you around and which cannot be destroyed, only temporarily disabled. Secondly, you can only shoot a block if you're more than a square's distance away from it, which in practice means the blocks have to be destroyed in a certain sequence, giving the game a puzzle element. There's also a time limit, and once you've blasted the blocks and the exit appears, your gun stops working!

For me though, the real innovation in this game is the half screen scrolling. Each level is about 3 screens wide, and the C64 version had full scrolling, but as we all know this doesn't translate too well to the Speccy. So when you get towards the extreme left of the screen, rather than scrolling, the screen flips half a screen and the tank appears in the middle again. It's a simple yet effective trick and I can't recall any other games using it. This also makes the game more tricky than the C64 version, as you never know when a baddie might pop up!

The graphics are blocky yet colourful (each level is a different colour), there's some nice sound FX and a cool tune on the title screen, and best of all the whole thing was a budget game - the best three quid I ever spent!

The premise is good but the implementation seems to me rather poor and pretty confussing . . . both , the scroll and the transparent graphics add confusion to the mix .

This sort of mental games I like a lot , but the silly graphics and the poor movements of this Anarchy spoil most of the fun , at least for me .

2,5 / 5 .

The English Oxford dictionary defines anarchy as "a state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or other controlling systems".

Quite what this has to do with the game I don't know. Anarchy puts you in control of a tank and tasks you with destroying all the blocks in the level within a time limit. There are also enemies who blend into the background making them difficult to see. And that's about all there is to it. Thrilling eh?
Nothing about this game is anarchic unless you count the scrolling which is positively headache inducing.

A lovely maze-shooter hybrid from Hewson's budget label Rack-It, programmed by none other than Dominic Robinson, author of Uridium, Zynaps and Flying Shark. You must drive a tank through 16 devilish and colorful mazes, shoot ammunition crates and proceed to the exit.

Sounds easy? Not at all! Enemies patrol the maze, and you cannot kill them - only stun them temporarily. Time goes away and if it reaches zero, you lose a life, so you must not dilly-dally and try working out the best possible route for each level in order to accomplish your mission.

Way above the average £ 2.99 game.

1987's is the year in which Dominic Robinson programmed his magnum opus, which it's of course Zynaps, but he even found the time to create this brilliant little game for Hewson's budget label, Rack-It.


In spite of the title, this game is not apologetic toward anarchy, au contraire, you must stop the anarchic rebels by penetrating their premises and destroying their ammunitions, while dodging their robots.

It's a top view tank game, reminding of the great Panzadrome [Ariolasoft, 1985], or a minor title as Podder [Central Solutions, 1986], in which the ammunitions are represented by square blocks you can shoot and destroy, while the robots can only be temporarily freezed.


But you can't destroy a block of ammunitions while standing near it, you have to stay at least a square away - this means that it's not always perfectly clear where to start from: you must observe and find the right path to destroy an entire agglomeration of them. This adds a slight puzzle element. You have a limited time, and once you've finished to destroy the ammunitions, the screen flashes and you must find the "exit" square.

The gameplay is very simple, but it's implemented in a fast, colourful way, with very nice sound effects and tunes - so, overall, a bit limited, but quite enjoyable nonetheless.

3,5/5