Producer: The Edge
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Andrew Beale

Psytraxx is said by its producers to be the second true mega-game, the first having been their 64 game Quo Vadis? "Now Spectrum owners can experience the fruits of our unbelievable synergy programming techniques," says the PR. No one at CRASH is entirely sure just what 'synergy' is when it's at home, or how it makes Psytraxx different from any other similar game type; and in as much Starbike looks uncannily like Lunar Jetman, Psytraxx looks uncannily like Atic Atac. You have a very large number of rooms, a wandering and questing hero and numerous manifestations of monsters, plus useful items to pick up on the way. As in Atic Atac, it it up to the player to discover how to do what, and what to do with it when you've got it.

Psytraxx takes place inside that ever popular location, a computer. You are in control of a Microdroid and the object is to do battle with the nuts and bolls of its innards (diodes, chips and the like) while trying to gain access to a CPU by collecting the Key Cards. To keep your spirits up there are little green blocks in each room visited that charge you up so you can fire at and destroy the nasties, although in each life, once eaten the cake is gone. There are only five rooms (all framed in printed circuitry) at the start that you can visit without problem since the last is blocked off by a purple and a blue force field over two exit doors. Collecting the key card a few rooms before, however, will gain you access to the next area which is much larger. The Edge claim that there are over 1060 screens to play through, and as our reviewers discovered, the game isn't as straightforward as it first seems.

COMMENTS

Control keys: A/Z up/down, O/P left/right, Q-T pick up and drop
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: responsive 8-directional movement
Use of colour: above average
Graphics: reasonable size and detail, fast and fairly smooth
Sound: useful beeps and some effects, otherwise not much
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: over a 1000

Psytraxx is definitely an Atic Atac look-alike, a sort of arcade adventure in which you must obviously find out how all the various elements are linked in order to see a way through. it's a constant fight against the nasties and a battle to keep the energy up as contact with any of the fixtures in the rooms drains you rapidly, and once that's gone you have no defence against the diodes and resistors until another power pack is found. Each of the key cards found seems to allow you access to further parts of the complex, but there are puzzles too. What is the chip with OR on it? Touch it and you dissolve to be reformed, but the chip that was yellow is now white and all the rooms that were once white are now yellow. Repeating the process reverses the phenomenon. is it useful? This and many other questions will no doubt be answered in the forthcoming weeks! I found Psytraxx extremely playable and challenging. It's obviously a much larger game than Atic Atac, but the graphics are nowhere near as attractive and as far as I can determine at this state of play, there isn't actually as much to do either. Still, a worthwhile buy, and I'll give it the benefit of the doubt that the further in you get the more complicated play becomes, just as it did with the first three levels.

This game from The Edge is similar in general game idea to Atic Atac (but not as good by far). Generally the game is okay, with all the nasties (chips, diodes etc) looking quite good. But on my encounter I would hardly call it a mega-game; in fact it was a bit on the synergy side.

I know hype is important when it comes to grabbing attention, but I think The Edge have well and truly overdone it with Psytraxx. I'm not saying that it isn't an interesting game, but if this is a true mega-game then I haven't much hope left for Spectrum advances. Let's face it, with all the nonsense about "synergy" programming techniques, what we have here is a pale shadow of Atic Atac, but completely without the charm of that game. I was vaguely reminded as well of Softek's Microbot, which I thought was a much better game that Psytraxx. The graphics here aren't bad, the animation of the various enemies is reasonable but the 1000 plus rooms are pretty boring to look at. I guess this is another "map" game, as you can quickly become lost in the maze, but an important part is such games is that the locations should all have something to give them identity. Psytraxx lacks sadly in this respect. Because of this, I didn't find it particularly addictive.

Roger: A sample tape with hardly any instructions didn't increase the likelihood of my establishing instant rapport with this game. I'm still not completely sure what you're supposed to achieve and/or whether there arc hidden programming secrets that incompetence and general lack of Willis-interest failed to unlock.

If my eyes haven't decieved me - which is always possible - the on-screen action occurs on a circuit board and involves the usual four-key control of movement plus the ability to zap any oppostion with what one can only assume are graphic attempts to represent electro-magnetic energy.

I would call it a one-screen stand even though it's claimed to have over 1000! It's not that other screens didn't exist, they're just not that different. The graphics are abysmal - unclear and unoriginal. The screens seemed to suggest the programmer had defined a few characters at the most, and then used them around the edge.

If your vocabulary in Basic is even smaller than your basic vocabulary, then it might just hold your interest for longer than it did mine, but I doubt it. I'm afraid 1 have to report that this is one of the most boring and overrated games I've had the misfortune to play since an old schoolfriend brought out his conkers! 1/5 MISS

Ross: A competent piece of software but rather dull in play and certainly not original. If you like mapping games, look no further.3/5 MISS

Dave: Very like Atic Atac in approach but with less interesting graphics. The Edge is claiming a new programming technique called Synergy allowing it to get over 1000 screens in 48K; Similar would probably be a better name 'cos that's what the rooms are. 2/5 MISS

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Sinc
FROM: The Edge, £7.95

BRAIN DRAIN CHALLENGE

From the same stable as Quo Vadis comes another 1,000-screen arcade-adventure starring a microdroid called Psytraxx.

Trapped in the confines of the Emperor robot's brain circuitry this rebel droid is trying to deactivate his master and free all the other enslaved components.

You start your quest at the edge connector and have to find your way to the CPU and turn it off. Many problems and hundreds of rooms bar your way and a map will be essential in the long run.

Each room is ringed by circuitry and contains components, some stationary and others which can move around. Contact with the circuits and electronics will deplete your energy in the form of your regeneration factor (RF).

If you hit a bit of moving micro hardware you lose a life although to start with they are fairly easy to avoid. You can also shoot these with your electric sparks which only zap to your left and right and use up your RF as well.

As you explore the rooms force field doors are encountered which can only be opened by the appropriate identity cards. These and several other objects can be found lying around for you to pick up.

The doorways between rooms appear a tight fit for your droid at first, but they allow you to get through even if you don't hit them spot on. Some are partially blocked by other circuitry and a steady hand is needed to avoid RF losses.

In nearly all the rooms there are green pills which replenish your RF, though they should be used as sparingly as possible. A keen eye is needed on this or you may find yourself with no energy and surrounded by hostile capacitors, resistors and diodes.

There are four circuit boards and hence four different levels to explore. You can move between levels by way of 'OR' gates which are colour-coded appropriately.

The main asset of the game is again size and hence the screens and characters are not that great to look at and there is no music or stunning sound effects. It is compulsive though as you explore and familiarize yourself with the layout, especially since the game gets tougher for every bit you solve.

There is actually a real arcade feel to this game as you blast your way about and it's large enough and complicated enough to keep the old grey matter moving as well.

An impressive program by any reckoning - pleasant enough to look at and use, with a really challenging long-term goal.

The point about the 1,000 screens is not that you get great variety of graphics - you don't - but that you've got an absorbing task on your hands finding your way around. In this sense it's five times bigger than Atic Atac.

Most of the aliens are animated drawings of electronic components and look very pretty. One nice touch is that as the game progresses more than 25 different species appear - and they get meaner the longer you go on.

I also like the fact that at the very end of the game, when you've deactivated the CPU, a clock starts counting down, giving you about three minutes to escape. This should mean a pulsating finish!

CHRIS ANDERSON

It seems that the current thinking in software is: 'the bigger the game, the better' and this game follows the trend featuring 1,026 rooms - and that's BIG! Who's dogged enough to map that?

Graphics are only so-so though your man is well-animated. The sound is extremely good and the control keys are nicely positioned. But it's the sheer size which is the main attraction. It'll be a good while before Psytraxx is completed I would think.

The key to its compulsiveness is the hope of discovering the elusive CPU.

MARTYN SMITH

Being so similar to Ultimate's Atic Atac it will inevitably be compared with it.

However, it is bigger than Atic Atac, it has an original scenario, quite pretty graphics and smooth animation.

PETER WALKER