BIGBOX THRILLS!

What's the best way to catch up on all the great games that appeared on the Spectrum a while back. One: go out and buy every single one and spend a fortune? Tow: pop around to your mate's house and nick his copies? Or three: take a trip down to your local software shop and snap up one of the great new compilations? Well, one's only for the stupid, two's only for complete basts, so it must be three! NICK ROBERTS gives you the low-down on the current hits in compilation land!

Code Masters
£2.99

At that sort of price you can't go wrong, really. All the packs are themed but that doesn't mean there's a lack of variety because there's plenty of different game styles to contend with (you would not believe it, etc etc...).

Quattro Adventure offers a great selection of platform games, each different enough to provide long-term playability. The titles are: Vampire, Ghost Hunters, Super Robin Hood and Dizzy.

RICH PELLEY dons his washing-up gloves and prepares to take on those oh-so-murky depths of...

BARGAIN BASEMENT
CodeMasters
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley

Roughly translated, language-fans, 'Quattro' means 'four' in Latin, or Spanish (or something), which is pretty cunning because guess what you'll find in Quattro Adventure? Four arcade adventure games for the same piffling price as one, that's what. A barg and a half to be sure.

Let's investigate. Take Dizzy (a walk-about/jump-over-obstacles/pick-up-objects/solve-lots-of-puzzles affair) - it's, ahem, "absolutely brilliant". (Such a fine game, in fact, that you lucky people should have found it lovingly sellotaped to the cover of issue 52 and played it hundreds of times already, so you'll know what I mean.) And then there's the flip-screen Super Robin Hood which sees you dashing about, jumping around, avoiding large quantities of baddies, shooting things and rescuing your girlie, Maid Marian (if you can find the time). Putting on the years a bit, yes, but loads playable, varied, fun and a complete spanker all the same. (One of me fave budgies ever, in fact, spook-fans.) Okay, so the other two aren't quite such scorchers - Vampire (platforms, ladders and cute small characters) is a bit boring (a significant lack of things to do) and Ghost Hunters (your average arcade adventure) is a bit, erm, average really. But there're still certainly worth a play or two, and at a mere 74.75p per game we're talking a bargain factor here of at least 97 billion.