Atlantis
£1.99
Reviewer: David Powell

Rubbish! Cheat! Swizz! Sorry, I'm not referring to the game, just my fourteenth successive failure to get past the guards. Not that this is the the most enthralling game I've played recently, nor are the guards particularly difficult to get past.

The Colditz Story is a sort of arcade/adventure game where your task is (wait for it, wait for it), to escape from Colditz castle. You are presented with three windows, the first showing the available exits, the second what room you are in and the third showing commands, your inventory and also doubling as the action screen.

Pity about the action though. Certain rooms contain guards who must be crawled past (hard on the knees), shot (where did the gun come from?), dropped through trap doors (these inmates are certainly resourceful), or engaged in conversation (absolutely fab if you can sprechen sie Deutsch), and so on. Occasionally, to break the monotony, you can pick up objects in the vain hope you'll be able to work out what they're for, and some of the puzzles are difficult enough to keep the ol' grey matter awake (just).

But though The Colditz Story may be a little dull at times, it can be fun in an odd sort of way, and when you've died yet again, out goes the finger for "just one more game".

Fairly good graphics, a modicum of humour and semi-tough maze of puzzles make this game reasonably worth two quid. Just don't blame the escape committee if you're caught and shot!

Label: Atlantis
Author: In-house
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: None
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

One wonders, as one wanders through the reasonably interesting combination of time, space and existence that is 'life', why a human being could waste any time at all playing The Colditz Story, let alone programming it.

It supposedly depicts - logically - your attempted escape from Colditz Castle. The screen shows a view of the castle on the left side, with each window illuminating as you pass through the room. Each room is identically represented in looking-into-a-box form at the top left hand (tiny) corner. Doors are shown on the walls, indicating a possible route, and there are occasionally ladders - no steps? - leading to the next level. You begin in a room at the top of the castle, and work your way down.

Every now and then, the major part of the screen which has obviously been retained for immensely tedious object-handling messages ("You now have items") will change to show a sort of courtyard or similar affair. In these sections, you have to dodge the guards by performing a heroic feat, like crawling behind oil barrels or swinging on a rope.

The game is bugged, with parts of the words Spectrum and Play popping up all over the place, instead of the graphics. There's absolutely no atmosphere, and the whole tragic mess should have been sent to the shredding plant at conception.