Producer: Endurance Games
Retail Price: £9.95 cassette
Author: Kerry Kevill, Iris Luttring and Billy Barry

The computer version of Eye follows the structure and content of the board game, but provides computer opponents to pit your wits against.

The action is played on a 'board' of 32 coloured sections, formed by two opposing sets of spirals lying within a circle. Rotating the spirals creates a shifting moire pattern and causes different coloured sections to appear in one of four set patterns.

To win the game, a player must place a specified number of counters in the corresponding colour sections on the board. The number of counters used depends upon the number of players, and the program accounts for between one and four participants, either human or electronic.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor.,Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: a clear representation of the board game
Sound: simple spot effects and title tune
Options: definable keys and 1-4 players option

If anything, Eye improves on the original board game, but as far as I'm concerned, the programmers have made the best of a bad job - the board game is nothing to write home about. What makes Eye so unlikeable is the lack of variety - there's only a few things to do and most of the time is spent waiting for the computer to take its turn. There are plenty of good computer board game interpretations on the Spectrum - but I'm afraid Eye isn't one of them.
PAUL [48%]

Eye is a completely new concept, but once mastered, there's little to keep you playing. The computer opponents are quite challenging, but overall I found that the gameplay was rather samey, and lacked any excitement or thrills. Playing the game with a couple of human opponents is fun, but I wouldn't recommend the computer version of Eye if you're likely to be playing it on your own
BYM [43%]

I've played the board game a couple of times and, to be quite honest, can't say that I found it particularly enjoyable. The computer version plays very similarly, and offers little more than some computer opponents. The gameplay isn't much fun, and after a couple of sessions I grew increasingly bored. Eye is beautifully packaged, but is very overpriced for what it offers. If you really want to play Eye, buy the board game.
MIKE [48%]

Endurance Games
£9.95
Reviewer: Tony Worrall

Get an Eyeful of this. What swank... what elegance... what aesthetic refinement - and that's even before I load the game! The box Eye comes in raises packaging design to new heights.

Unfortunately I'm deeply suspicious when software houses go to extreme lengths to tart up games. It usually means a sub-standard product hidden somewhere beneath it all. And beat me silly with a wet kipper (Perv! Ed) if I'm not right again.

Eye is simply a popular board game that's been converted to computer. It's a perfectly adequate conversion job, although there are a few tatty edges here and there (like the use of Basic, and the standard Spectrum character set). Eye is, well basically Eye. I'm not going to spell out how to play the thing here, it's enough to say that it involves different coloured squares, a number of counters, 1-4 players, and a revolving board. The object is to get your counters onto the corresponding colours on the game board.

Like all seemingly simple games it is much more complicated than that. Someone said it was more challenging than chess, but I think it leans towards a puzzle game. It requires some thought to beat the computer (or human) player, but very often you can win just by luck. If I had to compare it to another game I think I would choose Think, by Ariolasoft, as the nearest example of the game type.

After all the hype within the game industry for Eye, Eye... sorry, I was looking forward to something a bit special from Endurance. What we have here is really a budget game let loose at full price, with a smart line in designer packaging. If you desperately need a computer version of Eye, buy it by all means (just watch out which keys you press or you'll end up with a blank screen!). Otherwise stick to the real thing. Don't forget eye told you so.

Label: Endurance Games
Author: In-house
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K (3 loads) / 128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Chris Jenkins

I've never been convinced of the merit of converting board games to computers.

Eye is a boardgame aimed at the yuppie market I suppose. Certainly, it has the classic simplicity of games like chess and draughts, but I haven't found either the board game or the computer version very gripping.

The micro version is for one to four players and the playing area consists of a circular field containing 32 coloured squares formed by two intersecting spirals. There are eight different colours, each having four squares visible at any time. These spiral grids can be rotated to uncover a new pattern of colours.

The aim, then, is to get your counters on to the same coloured squares on the board.

Movement rules are simple. On any turn you can move to an adjacent square, and/or turn the spiral. You can't jump over an occupied square or land on it.

The big problem is that the simplicity of the game makes it look pretty dull on the computer screen. While you can't object to the quality of the conversion, it won't excite you much, simply because the board game won't excite you much.