Producer: Ocean
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.90
Language: Machine code
Author: Christian Urquhart and Nick Pierpoint

First thing you see with most games is the loading screen - it s hard to take your eyes off this one - a credit to Ocean and its authors.

Eskimo Eddie is a two-screen 'Pengo.' On the first you must rescue Percy Penguin three times. He's at the top of the screen and you're at the bottom. In between, two polar bears and three jagged holes in the ice move from side to side. The polar bears wrap around, one going to the right and the other, at a slower pace, going to the left. The ice holes just bounce from side to side, quite fast. So stage one is a bit like an icy 'Frogger.' The object is to cross the screen upwards, collect Percy, and then bring him safely back down.

Completing this screen three times moves you on to the more traditional looking 'Pengo' game. The screen is filled with what looks like a board of Rennie tablets, then to a loud twanging noise a maze is created by removing some of them to reveal Percy Penguin in the middle. Four snow bugs then pop up and the game begins. As usual in a 'Pengo' game, Percy can push the white snow blocks around the screen in the hope of squashing the bugs, or melt them to let him past. The edges of the screen may be electrified and any snow bug touching the same edge becomes dazed and can be run over. With this version, the killed off snow bugs come back after a few seconds until they have been killed twice.

Following screens have the same four bugs, but they are more intelligent in homing in on Percy.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, N/M left/right, SYM SHIFT push
Joystick: Kempston, Protek, AGF, ZX 2
Use of colour: very icy
Graphics: smooth, fast, detailed, good
Sound: great tunes, less in the game itself
Skill levels: 1, but progressive difficulty
Lives: 3
Screens: 2

The keys are very well laid out and offer a good response in moving the smooth graphics. The polar bears on screen one are especially well animated. Sound too is excellent with a strong, loud tune, although there isn't much to the actual game sound. This is a 'Pengo' game with much more content - perhaps not the best, but certainly very good value.

You effectively get two games for the price of one in Eskimo Eddie, a 'Frogger' and a 'Pengo.' This has obvious advantages in value but can prove to be a bit irritating when you have to wade through the first screen each time to play the second, main screen. Very good graphics with neat detailed touches. The actual game is quite a tough one with medium intelligent snow bugs, but very durable ones. Fortunately electrifying the fence has the effect of making all the bugs go slow, which device can get you out of a hole now and again. On the other hand, when you shove an ice block across the screen your movement is frozen, but not that of the bugs, who can then take the advantage and catch you, all in all, a very good game.

Great graphics and sound make this into an extremely playable game with lots of details, such as the way the ice blocks explode when 'melted.' Well-positioned keys, and responsive ones, help with the tough snow bugs, all in all a well thought out version of 'Pengo' where a lot of attention has been paid to detail, making it very good value.

Arctic thrills and chills with Percy, Growler and the Snowbugs. First of all you have to rescue Percy the penquin and then battle against the Snowbugs, using the available ice-blocks as fprotection against them,

Ieuan: The three crosses of the awkward Frogger-style beginning spoil the rest of the program. Excellent sound, especially the harmonious jingle. The graphics are also very good. 8/10

Dilwyn: The coloured snakes racing around the screen got on my nerves after a while, but technically it's a great effect - typical of many of the fine finishing touches to this game. 8/10

Brian: The second stage of the game is rather faster than the first, but great once you get to it. Lovely smooth animation and it's compatible with most joystick interfaces. 9/10

BLOCK BUSTERS - PENGO TYPE GAMES

Reviewers Chris Passey and Matthew Uffindell don their cold gear to play in the Arctic wastes...

The Pengo scenario says that a penguin in the snowy wastes must stay alive by melting ice blocks, or shunting them along to squash the snow bugs which threaten him. The frame resembles one of those small hand-held word puzzles with letters printed on small squares which may be shuffled to rearrange them. The game requires a certain amount of strategic thinking in setting up kills. You can usually 'electrify' the walls (the edge of the screen) and daze any nasties that touch it, running them down if you are able. First in the market was Blaby's Dodo and the Snow Bees by a long margin.

ESKIMO EDDIE
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price In £5.90

What distinguishes Eskimo Eddie from the others is that it has two totally different sheets in the game. Ocean did this with Mr Wimpy, and while it gives you two games for the price of one it can be a bit irritating when you want to get on with the Pengo part. Still, a very small quibble and one which mot people will probably disagree with. In the first sheet, Frogger style, you have to rescue Percy penguin from Growler the bear. There are two bears, slow and medium speed, and three jagged ice blocks which cross and recross the screen. You move from the bottom to the top, collect Percy, and then return. This has to be done three times before getting on to the Pengo sheet properly. From here on, everything is like the normal Pengo, with electric fences, bugs and blocks. The graphics throughout are very good and smooth and the sound is about the best (after Blaby!) and I liked the small details like the chasing rainbow effect round the edge of the first sheet. All in all a very good game which gets tougher with each screen.
CP

One difference that no other Pengo has is that this version has two totally different screens, the first being to avoid moving ice holes and superbly animated polar bears, rescue a penguin from the other side and bring him safety back - three times. The second screen then resembles most other Pengo games. The ice blocks move very well, but if you do push a block, all the control keys are frozen (sorry, didn't mean that!) until the block reaches the wall or a snow bug. This does pose problems - the bugs have a chance of catching you while you are stationary. Otherwise the graphics are very good, electric fences work well, ice blocks move smoothly and the sound is good. The snow bees get progressively more intelligent as each screen is cleared. A very good game.
MU

PENGO-TYPE GAMES COMPARISON TABLE

The two reviewers' ratings have been averaged, but despite independent assessment of the games, they were very much in agreement.

NB. Despite details printed on cassettes and in advertisements, due to an error Software Projects Push Off is not 16K but 48K. The same is true of Thrusta.

ESKIMO SKATES ON THIN ICE

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.90
Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair, Protek

Eskimo Eddie from Ocean invites the player into the Arctic. Eddie must battle against Growler the polar bear in his attempts to rescue Percy the penguin. On the second screen the penguin must defend itself against deadly snowbugs by pushing ice-blocks into their paths.

That is rather a dramatic description of the action on-screen which gives the impression of a frosty Frogger. In the first part the player must steer Eddie up the screen by keys or a variety of joysticks. Two polar bear figures and three jagged icefloes march across and Eddie will be killed if he makes contact with them.

After a few tries the graphics display is not very gripping or colourful. The repetitive quality of the tasks will not appeal to those fond of complex games, though it is possible younger children will enjoy it for a time. All in all, a disappointing production from Ocean.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Ocean
PRICE: £5.90

Pengo has successfully made its debut into the home computer market over the last few months. With several versions of the game already on the streets, I wondered what was in store with Eskimo Eddie.

Featuring Percy the Penguin, polar bears and snowbugs, it just had to be set in the frozen wastes of the arctic.

Eddie, warmly wrapped up in a hooded parka has to trundle across the paths of two polar bears and whizzing icebergs to rescue Percy the Penguin who's stuck at the top of the screen. This level is played in Frogger style with the polar bears and icebergs moving across the screen from both sides at varying speeds. Percy has to be rescued three times to get to the next level.

Graphically, this first screen isn't very impressive and contains almost no colour. However, the polar bears are excellent - they look as if they've just stepped off a glacier mint!

Eskimo Eddie takes a bow and departs at this point. You're left alone to escape the snowbugs who resemble little Pac-Men. Unfortunately for Percy, they have an insatiable appetite for penguins and he he has to work very hard to escape from and kill these little yellow monsters by squashing them with blocks of ice. However, don't relax - each succeeding level gets harder.

I know the Arctic isn't a very colourful place being, for the most part, covered in white! However, I do feel that more colour could have been used throughout the game. The title page is excellent, graphically exciting and more colourful than the game itself.

BRASS MONKEY TIME

MAKER: Ocean
MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £5.90

Ocean are particularly good at honing arcade originals to polished Spectrum programmes - their Kong and Hunchback are about the best of their type - and Eskimo Eddie is a skillful metamorphosis of Pengo into a playable small-scale version.

There's a kind of 'preliminary run' to pass through before the main part of the game: you send Eddie past ice floes and polar bears to pick up the penguin, a rescue which has to be effected three times before moving to the game proper.

This is actually a dubious bonus, for it's tedious to have to go through this unexciting stage each time a life is lost. But the bears at least are beautifully animated.

As for the rest, it is to my mind based on a singularly obtuse and brainless original - for some reason Eskimo Eddie's rather shapeless monsters always seem especially bland - and a glossy layout merely masks action which is smooth but eventually uninvolving.

A perky use of the computer's limited sound and a general attention to detail hallmark the craftsmanship by which Ocean has commendably stuck by, and it must be admitted that this is the best Pengo version around.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: Optional
SUPPLIER: Ocean
PRICE: £5.90

This is a two-part game of which the second is a reasonable version of Pengy (slide ice-blocks to crush snow-bees). The first is a simple affair in which you have to dodge a couple of polar bears. Unfortunately every time you lose out on part two you have to go through part one again.

Percy the Penguin stands at the top of the screen, Eskimo Eddie at the bottom. Between them, the savage polar bears move one way and the treacherous holes in the ice move the other way. The player's aim is to move Eddie to the top of the screen to collect Pengy and to return with him to the bottom of the screen three times.

The game is a simplified version of Frogger but, even so, it requires coordination and careful timing, especially as it is often slow to respond to either keys or joystick. Another difficulty is that the program does not always realise when Eddie has collided with a polar bear and so it is possible for him to walk on top of the bear for some distance.

Once Pengy has been saved three times the game moves to the next completely different level. The player controls Pengy, who is trapped in the centre of a maze of ice cubes, threatened by the evil snow bugs. The only way to escape is to push the ice blocks at the bugs.

It is a game for experienced arcade players only, for plenty of skill is needed to escape the bugs and to be in the proper place at the proper time to move the ice blocks. Those difficulties are compounded by the strange choice of control keys made by the authors, a choice which there is no option to alter.

Eskimo Eddie is produced by Ocean Software Ltd, Rail Building, Stanley Street, Manchester M3 5FD and costs £5.90.