Reviews

In the 80s we saw a few strange tie in celeb licences, and often they were retired footballers. Emlyn Hughes' Arcade Quiz and Saint and Greavsie were 2 bizarre choices. Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona had the strangest name. Jack Charlton's Match Fishing was especially sublime, a man who regained fame for recruiting workmanlike Englishmen to hoof the ball forwards for Ireland and who also liked fishing... perfect inspiration for a Spectrum game.

Sir Freddie Laker wasn't a footballer. But his innovative budget transatlantic airline did go bust spectacularly in 1982, the year the Spectrum was born. Laker was one of a trio of Thatcher's favourite businessmen (according to Laker's Wiki page). The other 2, Sirs Clive Sinclair and Alan Sugar both owned plenty of Spectrums, so this game finally brought Freddie into the Speccy scene.

As to the game, it was rediscovered as a lost gem in 2012, 6 years after Freddie had gone into permanent MIA. Dated copyright 1984, the game was received via World of Spectrum forumites with bemusement. It was too good for such an early game said one, perhaps the 4, of 1984 should be a 9?

Then the geeks got stuck in and the game before the game was revealed. The WoS directory page points towards the relevant forum thread, where more canny codes and secretive clues than a Dan Brown mystery were revealed. The author was intrepidly unmasked and April Fool's day 2012 identified as the true date of publication.

And so to the game itself, which starts with sampled speech and yes, looks and plays better than most 1984 era games.

Played in four strongly nostalgic sections, part one is busywork in the Pssst or Cookie fashion, clearing litter (a la Trashman) and iterlopers from Freddie's runway. Part 2 sees you shooting contraband luggage items dead – but don't shoot the wrong item. In Part 3 you side scroll the plane past birds and aliens and balloons etc until you can land it. Part 4 tests your platforming skills and logic as you jump about fixing gas and oil leaks in the baggage handling system. This bit is evocative of Spectrum jumping mechanics in classics such as Turmoil and Automania. You have a 60 second countdown to complete this section, a shame because like Part 1 this Part could be an acceptable game in its own right; I could have stuck at it for longer.

Misc Negatives
Part 4 has the timer set a bit tight.

Misc Positives
Everything about the game – conception, name, launch, gameplay, presentation – is the work of a true wit. It embraces fun all the way and is very well programmed and immediately playable. Once all four sections are complete you get new baddies to deal with and the difficulty ramps up on every level. It has quite a bit more to it high score addiction, though it would be an excellent games for a high score challenge.

Verdict
Nostalgic gameplay at its most recent! Wonderful. 4.4/5

A very silly collection of mini games. I really enjoyed the first 2 stages but found the last 2 a bit dull.

2012 Rutlemore Games (UK)

This is a great example of the love some users have for this little machine. You can see that right from the beginning of the game, with a first level mixing iconic elements from classics such as Atic Atac, Trashman, the shouting from Mikie or the sounds of Hyper Sports, this is truly a delight for any retro lover. I urge the programmer to develop a game around level 1. I would play it for sure!

Levels 2 and 3, which are different, are nothing special, but are enjoyable enough and well written. I personally didn't recognize any old game elements in them, if there are any. Level 4 could again be a game itself. Although I don't think it is that original. After all, it's mainly a tribute to Turmoil, as another user already stated, and to that giant classic we all know of: Manic Miner.

4,5 points

I found this to be very highly amusing and great fun though level 4 is quite a pain. But it's still a pretty enjoyable game.

I like the novelty in this and it looks nice, but it seems a bit to easy to hit a person or birds that decreases time. It certainly has the looks to be a quality game, however I feel it misses the mark.