Producer: Add-On
Memory Required: 16K
Retail Price: £5.00
Language: Machine code

As the name suggests, this is the venerable 'Centipede' on the rampage again. All the usual features are present in this version from the centipede itself to the spider and another 'thing'. Red and green mushrooms which need only a single shot to destroy them, play their usual part and the monsterpede breaks up into segments when shot. 'You' can move left and right and upwards for about four character blocks.

The general presentation of this particular version is dreadful. The cassette inlay has been printed for the Aquarius and crudely overstuck with red Spectrum stickers, all the loading instructions are for the Aquarius inside and there are no instructions as to the control keys or joystick options (if there are any). The tape we received (from sales stock and not for review purposes) was badly over-recorded and the information only began some one and a half minutes into the tape.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/W = left/right, E/R= down/up, T= fire and S to start. Not very good layout
Joystick option: none
Keyboard play: responsive and fast
Use of colour: good
Graphics: jerky, average
Sound: continuous, fair
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3

The version is quite a good one, but because I have now played it so many times I found it boring and unaddictive. There must be as many 'centipede' games for the Spectrum as a millipede has legs.

The graphics are fairly detailed and it looks like a reasonable copy of the original arcade game. A game like this must move and fire quickly, and this version lives up to those expectations.

I don't know when this version was really released, a long time ago I suspect, when it was reasonable. It's a simple game to program and it should look good without much trouble. Millypede certainly looks okay, but I think a bit much to put out Spectrum cassettes in Aquarius packaging. The game is out of date now, but for those who really still yearn for the good old days, I would say that there are better versions around than this.

Another Centipede game in which the object is to shoot a millypede that's crawling down through a mushroom patch, all the while avoiding the spider and hitting snails for bonus points.

Simon: In addition to being just another Centipede game, this one suffers from poor graphics and a sound output that isn't worth amplifying. However, the speed is just about right, and the choice of colours is impressive. 3/10

Jon: Good overall screen effect, but the speed is perhaps a little too fast - especially the spider. Control is a bit difficult because the game control keys are too close together. 6/10

Ian: Graphics definition is run-of-the-mill, and movement is one character block at a time. But the overall display is improved by the choice of colours which contrast well enough. 4/10

MUTANT GARDEN IS COMPULSIVE

Memory: 16 or 48K
Price: £5.00

Gardening can be a lethal business in the post-holocaust world of Millypede, from Add-On Electronics. In this version of the standard arcade game, plant and animal life has mutated after an inter-gaLactic fusion bomb has devasted the Earth. To prevent mutant bugs and creepy-crawlies getting into your family anti-fusion shelter you must zap and zap again as the mushroom patch is invaded by inexorable splitting millypedes.

Sickly bouncing spiders trampoline across your field of fire and you have to stay well clear of their trajectories if you want to survive to do the weeding another day.

You move and fire your laser with the QWERTY keys and you can shift the base up into the lower part of the screen to avoid any ravening bugs which have reached the bottom line. The machine code graphics are colourful and the millypedes snake and ladder down the mushrooms at an alarming rate. Your score is reckoned by the number of mushrooms, millypede segments and spiders you eliminate and there is a high score initialling facility.

Millypede is a reasonably fast and compulsive variant of an arcade oldie and will have you returning for just one more try, but watch for that darned spider. The game, runs on any Spectrum.