Released in 1983 on a Spectrum Computing covertape, this title has absolutely nothing to do with the rather more well known (in the UK at least) presenter Jeremy Paxman.
It's an average game, but only in the context of it being at the level of most BASIC type-ins. Obviously it does not come close to the quality of commercial m/c games. A cynic might surmise that the author had UDGs of Pacman and ghosts already typed in and avaiable, but couldn't quite decide how to use them. For here we have a game featuring Pacman "sprites", but is not in any way a Pacman clone.
Your job as Pacman (err.. I mean Paxman) is to defend Pax-city (located in Paxland) from flooding from a nearby huge dam. The dam would would be quite safe, were it not for the steady stream of flying ghosts that keep attacking it, taking out a sizeable chunk on each attack. When the dam is completely breached, the game is over. However, if you manage to catch ten ghosts, then you have won and the breach was averted.
Pax-city itself looks rather like part of the industrialised Ruhr valley, and it even has a small church (thanks to a strategically placed '+' sign). You only need to press one key to play this game, the '0' key. This fires Paxman vertically in front of the dam, hopefully intercepting a ghost attacker. Be warned, your timing has to be perfect within one iteration of the main game loop. This game is harder than it looks and can take a while to successfully complete - the difficulty level is reasonably tough.
An amusing thing is when you lose the game, the floodwaters only fill up to the level of the breach, even though the water level remains much higher on the dam side. Surely, the water levels should equalise on both sides?
Anyhow, overall I found it entertaining for a little while. Not bad for a relatively short BASIC listing. But, if these are the "further" adventures of Paxman, then what ever happened to Paxman's original adventures? Alas, I can't find them anywhere!
