Producer: Impact
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.90
Language: Machine code

For the older joystick riders among you the name Impact may ring a bell or two, CRASH technical supreme Franco Frey claims he used to play Impact games when he was young - they must have been written for Babbage's Difference Engine. This is a new company and Pete N' Barry is their first program. The object of the game is to rescue a journalist from an asylum (I knew someone would write a game about us sooner or later). The player is cast in the role of PC Plod, who must enter the maze of rooms in order to find the bits of the doll. The doll? Ah well you will need the doll, complete, to exchange for the reporter, you will also need to find the video cassette.

The five parts of the doll will be spread around the numerous rooms within the institution but within each room you will find thingies contact with which will cause the policeman to lose 'bottle' for energy). The energy can be replenished if you come across either a riot helmet or a Doc Martin boot. Your only defence against the nasties is to try and keep them of you by repeatedly hitting them with your truncheon, for this you will score points. The collected parts of the doll are shown within a frame at the side of the screen, should you manage to find the cassette then you will be able to proceed through a room to the dungeon, but enter that room without the cassette and you will die, sorry but that's the way it is. In the dungeon you will have to succeed in the 'final confrontation' before you can leave with the reporter.

COMMENTS

Control keys: CAPS/Z left/right, L/SYM SHIFT up/down, P/ENTER pick up/fire
Joystick: Kempston only
Keyboard play: well organised and responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: good looking but slow
Sound: none
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screen: 100 rooms

Please allow me to congratulate Impact on the production of this game. The graphics are very nice, the birds eye view of each room while not new is effective and the game is hard to play, it's a shame the game itself is so uninteresting. I hope that the use of nasty bloodthirsty graphics are meant to stimulate sales but what other purpose can they serve? Their entertainment value is negligible. The market has moved on. Impact seems to have the ability to produce something a little special so if you don't mind I'll take a rain check on this one and wait for something better.

It's nice to see a new software house emerging when a lot are giving up or going bust. Being the first game from Impact Software I expected it to be pretty good, original and playable if only because these qualities are more essential in a new, untried company to enable them to get established. First glance at this game proved it to be not unlike Atic Atac in looks at least, although not as visually impressive. On playing the game nothing much struck me - the graphics never varied although the nasties vary throughout the game. I soon became very bored with this game, and when I say soon I mean like after five minutes. There just didn't seem to be any content. For £6.90 it's terrible value for money and I've seen far better games in the budget range.

The Ultimate style overhead 3D promises an interesting game but although the rooms are well designed graphically the actual moving characters are flickery and unsteady, and you soon realise that there isn't a lot to playing the game either. It' s also rather sad that programmers feel the need to keep on copying older ideas, like when you lose your last life and a Jet Set Willy tune plays as a long arm comes down to pull off your head - well it's a bit different from the squashing foot, but similar in idea. Pete 'n' Barry (where does the title come in?) is above average by a margin.