Players
£1.99

Okay, so there have been one or two fruit machine games on the Speccy. Eight billion, in fact. Surely no new game can add anything new to this well-worn genre? But Dizzy Dice ain't no lemon - in fact it's a peach. Though it wouldn't win any prizes for style or originality, it really hits the jackpot on playability.

You start with ten points, using up one for every game. As the fruit, bells, wheels and BAR signs rotate through the four windows, you can win from 2 to 200 points. You can usually hold the symbols about half the time - though never after a win, where you simply gamble or collect. This feature is rather more complicated than on real machines. You can choose one of five symbols, each of which pays out a different amount. Then the wheel spins, and if your symbol is picked out, you win some more points. It's much more of a gamble than on the real thing, so this is recommended only for small wins. Fortunately two or four point wins spin along fairly regularly, so you can gamble on these while bunging the big wins in the bank.

If you're not on a winning streak, you'll find certain symbols lighting up at the bottom of the screen as they appear in the windows. They'll only light up in a preset order, but when you have all six, lights start flashing and you can play the Dice Game. Now the fun really starts. This is a sort of Play Your Cards Right with an ordinary die (or the computer equivalent). The Speccy chooses a random number between 1 and 6, and it's your job to guess whether the next throw will be higher, lower or the same. If you bet correctly, you double the points at stake, up to a maximum 200. If not, you lose your stake. Alternatively you can cop out at any point and take the money. You'll bet, though, won't you? Yeah, course you will.

It's not exactly the most ambitious game I've ever seen, but that didn't stop me from battering away at it when I should've been doing something else (We noticed! Ed). I doubt it's got real staying power, but even so Dizzy Dice is a really fruity number at the price. And it's got to be the best one-armed bandit game around. BAR none! (Groan. Ed).

Label: Players
Author: In-house
Price: £1.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: John Gilbert

Take on a one-armed bandit and blow a bank. No, Players hasn't ripped off They Stole a Million, but it has come up with the most complex fruit machine simulation to hit the Spectrum.

There are two versions of the game, the simplest being Ordinary Dice. Roll the fruity combinations with a press of the S key - no joysticks allowed - and watch as the cherries, lemons, bars et al spin in the four jackpot windows. If one of the winning combinations shows up you can collect your meagre winnings.

Once you've chosen to take a chance the pointer on the gamble wheel spins past the fruit symbols.

If you choose correctly here you can stash the money and return to the fruit machine or progress to the dice game and, hopefully, increase your money even more. It's so simple, but you can add up to $200 to your total if you guess whether the next roll of the dice will be higher or lower than the current face showing.

The Ordinary Dice game is easy, the odds are more or less against you, but Bank Mode is tougher. Each casino bank has a financial limit, and to break one you just have to bankrupt it. From Bank One you'll need to win £100 while you'll need to get £1000 from Bank Five. The rules are the same as in the Ordinary Dice game but the level system makes things much more interesting.

Players has made a tired old game into a complex dice with chance. At. £1.99 I can see nothing wrong about this offering which, in terms of graphics, has more than some £7.99 games going for it.

Players
£1.99

Fruit machine simulations inevitably lack the excitement of the real thing. On the plus side you can't lose your shirt but on the other hand you're not going to walk away with your pockets bulging with loose change. Without the thrill of the gamble the simulation is ultimately - fruitless. That being said Dizzy Dice manages to be slightly better than most games of this kind so if you want a harmless imaginary flutter this might be worth a whirl especially at a budget price.

The presentation is bright and full of activity once the fruits are rolling. A touch of diversity is added to the usual game with the opportunity to gamble your winnings on a roulette wheel or on the throw of a dice (guessing whether it will be higher or lower than the previous throw).

Starting off with $10 you must turn if into $100 thus breaking the bank. You then move on to try breaking the bank at higher cash limits.

Dizzy Dice is about as good a game as you'll get in this unadventurous genre but purists will notice a glaring inaccuracy. When they are about to run out of coins, the machine will suddenly turn benevolent and give you four fruits in a row and a hefty payout, just to keep you in the game.