REVIEWS COURTESY OF ZXSR

Alcatraz Harry
by Barry Jones, John Smyth
Mastertronic Ltd
1984
Crash Issue 9, Oct 1984   page(s) 123

Producer: Mastertronic
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £1.99
Language: BASIC
Author: B. Jones

Alcatraz is the famous old American island prison in San Francisco Bay. The cover of this new game from Mastertronic - a 'unique blend of arcade, strategy and adventure'- has a cover which reinforces the belief that it is an American prison break game. So it comes as rather a surprise to discover in the onscreen instructions at the start that you are in a prison camp from which you must escape with secret files that the allies need. Sounds more like the Second World War!

You start the game in a compound into which you must place 30 items of equipment. A flashing X marks the spot at the bottom centre of an 8 by 18 grid (144 squares). You collect escape equipment as you move around. At the start you are told the sector number where the secret files are to be found, once all the equipment is collected, and your present sector number is displayed whenever you want in a status report. After collecting the equipment you must make your escape via a hole in the North fence after passing through a minefield.

Besides yourself in the camp there are guards who will arrest you for loitering should return to that sector again, there are tunnels which lead to other parts of the camp and cars which can be used for driving back to compound where the equipment must be deposited.

Harry, if that's who he is, is moved about by four directional keys. Setting off from the compound, he can be moved to any other screen by touching the edge. The objects to be collected, which consist of six types, ropes, ladders, wire cutters etc, are usually found on the right of the screen while a blockhouse or guardhouse is on the left. The camp perimeter squares are indicated by the fencing. If Harry goes into a tunnel there is a screen showing a diagrammatic cross section of the ground with the tunnel burrowing under the imagined wall of the two connecting sectors. Should he escape with all the equipment, the minefield part of the game takes the form of Mined-Out in reverse, you are shown the positions of the mines very briefly and then have to work your way across. Help is given by the border colours which warn of the proximity of one, two or three mines a step away.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, O/P left/right, S for status
Joystick: none
Keyboard play: very slow
Use of colour: below average
Graphics: large and ungainly
Sound: poor
Skill levels: 4


The graphics in this game are of a reasonable size but are not terribly well animated (in fact your man looks like he's had one over the limit)! Overall the game is not exactly a great game but on the other hand for what it is, it does represent value for money at £1.99.


Although you are allowed to see the grid with the 144 sectors in the instructions, and are led to believe that this info will be repeated if you press S for status, it isn't. You are merely told which sector number you are in - no indication as to how the sectors are numbered. That means that if you are going to take the game seriously you must map your moves, especially if you don't want to run into a guard for the second time and get arrested. The real point is whether you're going to take the game seriously! To my mind it is good value for a young child playing with a parent, but for anyone seriously considering an adventure with arcade overtones, I wouldn't bother. Although the guards look authentically like World War I French soldiers (!?), Harry looks like Mr. Midshipman Easy dancing a hornpipe.


Where does the 'unique blend of arcade, strategy and adventure' description fit into this game? A very primitive idea and program. You (well your legs) move in a very odd fashion, almost as though they have been broken. This game is very still in the sense that nothing seems to move or happen. Keyboard layout is good but response time is slow. Colour, sound and graphics have been poorly used. Still not really worth the cheap price.

Use of Computer45%
Graphics41%
Playability31%
Getting Started58%
Addictive Qualities31%
Value For Money49%
Overall43%
Summary: General Rating: Below average to poor in execution and content.

Transcript by Chris Bourne

Your Spectrum Issue 9, Nov 1984   page(s) 59

Ron: Imprisoned in Alcatraz, it's up to Harry to search for and steal some secret files which've been stored in an underground vault and, once found, he must escape through a hole in one of the fences.

Now all this seems pretty simple until you see a grid map of the prison layout, which shows the 144 different locations in which the files could be hidden. To make sure that you visit most of them, it's necessary to search for 30 items of escape equipment as well. This done Harry must be helped back to the compound and begin his walk across the minefield to safety beyond the electrified fence.

This is no easy game to complete, but with only average use of colour, flickering repetitive graphics and a fairly slow playing speed, it's unlikely anyone would want to. However, to its credit, there are some fun locations to visit; for instance; go past certain guards too many times and have your head blown off - violent stuff, but done with humour. Definitely reasonable value for the price that's being asked. 2/5 MISS

David: It's a shame Mastertronic's machine code programmers were out to lunch when this one got away. Thus, play is fairly slow and tedious. 2/5 MISS

Roger: This ones's a curious mixture of arcade and adventure action, but overall I'd say Harry deserved to stay incarcerated. I think some thrilling text might have made it better. 4/5 MISS


REVIEW BY: Roger Willis, Ron Smith, David Lester

Roger4/5
Ron2/5
David2/5
Transcript by Chris Bourne

Sinclair User Issue 31, Oct 1984   page(s) 44

ESCAPE TO BOREDOM

Memory: 48K
Price: £1.99

Alcatraz Harry, from Mastertronic, captures the essence of prison life brilliantly - intense boredom. It is a maze game in which you must find secret files and amass equipment before escaping.

The maze is a grid containing a scattered selection of revolvers, ladders, wirecutters and similar objects. There are also guards to complicate the route.

The graphics are flickery, and although there are a great number of screens, there is very little detail in each one; a few simple buildings or a watchtower at best. Movement is slow, and although the scenario seems promising at first, it rapidly pails through lack of variety.

For the low price, the game is adequate. But in terms of quality, the game falls way short of what is possible.


REVIEW BY: Chris Bourne

Gilbert Factor3/10
Transcript by Chris Bourne

C&VG (Computer & Video Games) Issue 36, Oct 1984   page(s) 40

MACHINE: 48K Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Mastertronic
PRICE: £1.99

I don't want to alarm you but Mastertronic has just made escaping from Alcatraz about as easy as punching your way out of a paper bag.

OK, so it's only a computer game, but it's just as well. For if this were all that it took to escape from the world's toughest prison then those killers wouldn't be locked up for very long.

All you have to do is wander around a 20x10 grid collecting 30 items, dump them in a compound (none of the ropes, guns or ladders is used for anything), and then pick a safe route to the north wall to where a hole in the fence has been conveniently ignored by the guards for you to escape through.

If you are expecting sharks, searchlights and sirens then forget it - all you get in Alcatraz Harry are a few static drawings of guards and dogs which are simple to dodge by plotting their position on a piece of graph paper.

If you stumble inadvertently into a screen with a guard in it for a second time, it's curtains. They're sporting chaps, the guards in M'tronics Alcatraz, for when you walk past them for the first time they stand completely still.

In order to escape, you have to take with you some secret files that are hidden at the foot of one of the many grilles scattered around the grid.

This doesn't add any challenge though, as you are told which sector you are looking for at the beginning of the game.

If you are completely stupid and scramble down the wrong grille, you will have your head blown off by a firing Squad.

Alcatraz Harry is written in Basic and lacks both speed and smoothness of scrolling. The animation is amongst the worst I have seen in a computer game.

Harry moves around the screen as if in an impersonation of one of John Cleese's silly walks.

Alcatraz Harry is about one hour's fairly boring entertainment for £1.99. It runs on the 48k Spectrum and is in the shops now. If you want a decent escaping, collecting, maze-style game then get Atic Atac - it's only just over twice as dear a Alcatraz Harry but it's incomparably better.


Getting Started5/10
Graphics4/10
Value1/10
Playability1/10
Transcript by Chris Bourne

Personal Computer Games Issue 11, Oct 1984   page(s) 50,51

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys
FROM: Mastertronic, £1.99

This is another game in Mastertronic's £1.99 range, games which have so far earned a bit of a reputation for not being worth the price of the blank tape they're recorded on. So what's this one like?

Well, the scenario isn't bad. You play the part of Harry, trying to escape from the prison, and you must first move around the camp collecting escape equipment such as ladders, ropes, as well as something which looks remarkably like an apple.

You search also for some secret files, whose location you are told at the start of the game. Having done all this you then negotiate a minefield which has sprouted up from apparently nowhere and slip through a hole in the fence to freedom.

You move from place to place a la Atic Atac and each location is quite nicely drawn, depicting guard towers and cell blocks.

Harry's animation however, is fairly jerky and he looks more like he's performing a song and dance act than walking. Movement is not particularly fast either, and waiting for him to cross a screen gets pretty tedious.

Nor is the sound anything to write home about, the tinny beepings being a positive annoyance at times and not adding anything to the game.

Alcatraz Harry has four skill levels which all appear remarkably similar, and after a few games the appeal wears pretty thin.

Its a pretty simplistic game and there's really not a lot to tell you about, which isn't too surprising when you remember the price. You get what you pay for - not an awful lot.


I suppose I've been spoiled by games like Atic Atac and Sabre Wulf, but I believe that unless an arcade adventure is outstanding it's barely worth considering.

Alcatraz Harry doesn't cut it. The graphics are pretty poor (although considering they're produced from Basic the programmer does deserve a favourable mention) and sound, frankly, is dreadful.

The concept is fine but the implementation leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sorry Mastertronic, but unless you start producing some better games, you are going to come to a sticky end.

ROBERT PATRICK

This is bound to suffer because it is released in the Mastertronic £1.99 range. 'Who can possibly produce a game for two quid?'

But Mastertronic have managed it. Some of the graphics lack imagination (and Harry's style or running annoyed me), the sound is average with some good tunes. The plot is inventive and requires thought.

The control keys are in good positions and the on-screen instructions are clear and concise.

Really, it's hard to criticise a game of quality at such a low price.

MARTYN SMITH

REVIEW BY: Peter Walker, Robert Patrick, Martyn Smith

Graphics4/10
Sound3/10
Originality6/10
Lasting Interest3/10
Overall4/10
Transcript by Chris Bourne

Your Computer Issue 9, Sep 1984   page(s) 43

48K Spectrum
Graphic Adventure
£1.99
Mastertronic

Alcatraz Harry is bent on escape, and so travels around Alcatraz picking up escape gear. Once this has been accomplished you thread your way through a mine-field to a hole in the outer fence. Nothing very taxing, not bad for the money.


Overall3/5
Transcript by Chris Bourne

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