REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

Bull Tables
by Derek Jones
Lotus-Soft
1983
Crash Issue 2, Mar 1984   page(s) 99

Producer: Lotus-Soft
Memory Required: 16K
Retail Price: £5.50

Bull Tables contains three programs on one cassette. Bull Tables itself is an arithmetic game. After loading a menu offers the option of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. When you have made your choice you can select between 6 levels of skill. At the highest level questions can be as difficult as 23 x 35 = ? At the easiest level, as simple as 1 x 3 = ? The screen displays the sum to be done at the top left. At the bottom a 'Table Man' stands ready above a table of numbers 0 to 9. On the right is a paddock with a bull in it. As soon as the game starts, the bull charges at the paddock wall, slowly eating chunks out of it. The object is to get ten sums correct before the bull breaks out and destroys the numbers. The game is personalised by the child when he or she is asked to enter their name at the start.

After the work comes the play. The two programs following are games. Nine Lives provides the task of catching twenty mice. You are a cat, your enemy is a black dog. The mice are dotted about the screen and the cat must go round touching them, avoiding the dog, who will chase the cat. Three bones per life are the best way of slowing the dog down for a moment. Any mice touched by the dog are sent to safety.

Candyman is for two players, who must get their 'men' through a series of opening and shutting doors. They can see how long It takes them as they are playing against the clock. Throughout all three programs the simple graphics are very entertaining and move nicely despite the program being written in BASIC. The package offers good value for money.


Transcript by Chris Bourne

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