Peneless + Toot 'n' Come in
Ivysoft
1992

Title: Peneless + Toot 'n' Come In
Price: £4.99 cassette
Publisher: Ivysoft
Reviewer: Tim Kemp

This two-game tape arrived complete with splendid full-colour cassette cover, an eight page instruction booklet and a few maps (for review copies only, I'm afraid). It sports a hefty price tag of £4.99 but I think that the two games are bargains. It's even more of a barg when you consider that the main one, Peneless, gives you the chance to win a 14" colour Television. Coo, eh?

Anyway, Toot 'n' Come in is an 'explore a pyramid' adventure. You begin the game on the middle level of what seems to be a three-layer tomb. Exploration is the name of the game, so mapping as you go is your top priority here. You begin at the entrance and discover your bearer lying squashed under a large rockfall. His hand - the only part of him that's visible, rests against your boot. The game sports graphics that occupy the top third of the screen and that appear almost instantly. What's more, they are really very good indeed considering the Spectrum's limitations in that department. The text scrolls effortlessly below the pictures to tell you where you are and what's happening. The objects you discover seem to have obvious uses, though one or two items are tenuously linked together.

Along the way you'll have to deal with a few monsters and that's when a bit of simple RPG style combat rears its head. Combat comes in three main flavours...

- You have the choice to fight.
- Carry on the fight or
- Get the hell out of there!

There's plenty of knees to the groin, eye gouging, ear pulling and finger biting during skirmishes which will keep you amused.

To a certain degree, progress is swift, though semi-sudden deaths are lurking around quite a few corners. Keep an eye out for secret passages, hidden levers on walls and such like. The graphics really make the game and go a long way to making it a very enjoyable romp in the tombs of Seti IV.

The other game on the tape, Peneless, appears to be almost identical in screen presentation to Toot. The game itself is set in and around the site of an archaeological dig. Your wife of six weeks, Lady Penelope Pendragon, has been abducted by warriors from a tribe long since presumed extinct. You manage to trail them and eventually wind up looking out of a tunnel into bright sunlight... you are lost, trapped by a rockfall and fear you may never see Penelope again.

Once again, make the exploration of the tunnels, surrounding area, rooms and mazes your top priority. There are several sudden deaths, with more cunning traps and difficult problems to overcome. SDS (sudden death syndrome) is never a pretty sight or a good feature to have in a game, but it makes this particular game all the more playable for some strange reason! I had to struggle along without a help-sheet (I suppose I might have finished the game and claimed the prize if I'd had one) and I can't really say much more about the adventure for fear of giving too much away.

On the whole, the £4.99 price tag is pretty reasonable. What more can I say except buy it NOW! Not only is the prize worth winning, but the games are worth owning too.

Peneless and Toot 'n' Come In are available for £4.99 from Ivysoft, 17 Parkside, Ivybridge, Devon PL21 0HU. (Cheques etc. to Jim Whittle)

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REVIEW BY: Tim Kemp

Blurb: BLIM! Did you know that £25,000 was on offer to the person who could crack Domark's adventure Eureka. Other prizes from other companies included a bejewelled, golden hare from Haresoft; a video recorder for cracking Incentive's Mountains of Ket trilogy, and the magnificent Golden Sundial Of Pi was the prize from Automata for piecing together clues to its whereabouts in PiMania.