Producer: Durell
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: Julian Todd

Let's face it, just about the dumbest habitat for your average worm is the inside of a Spectrum. But, things being the way they are in computer games, that's exactly where this particular worm resides.

Ol' Fatty, the world's most dense worm, has clearly hit upon the theory that this is the place where he is least likely to be hassled by blackbirds, robins and the like.

Just as he is settling down to the easy life, he suddenly realises that things aren't so wonderful after all. Contrary to popular opinion, the inside of the average Spectrum is absolutely crawling with life. Creeper bugs buzz around in Sputniks, swooping low over the main PCB. The Sputniks, if not dealt with, transform into Crawlies which try to attach themselves to Fatty. Just to add to the problems, termite-like Crawlies sometimes erupt from the surface of the PCB and chase him around.

Fatty's eventual aim in life is the very natural urge to pass on his genes to another generation. Considering the limited intelligence he has displayed up to date, this seems a thoroughly dubious goal. To reproduce, Fatty needs to collect 50 spindles lying around on the PCB. Then he's got to find the disk drive, get all his data copied and clone himself.

The microscopic world of Fatty is a world of bewildering height and depth. What might seem a sliver of silver conductor to you or me is an insurmountable obstacle to him. To get around, he has to be carefully steered up convenient ramps and slid along data buses suspended at dizzying heights above the PCB. All the various bits and blocks scattered around the place are given true perspective, so that, when they are at the centre of the screen, they appear fiat. As Fatty moves, and the object approaches the edge of the screen, the sides of the object come into view giving an impression of height not unlike flying over a Lilliputian version of New York.

Fatty's fate is sealed if he picks up more than four Crawlies, but there are handy debuggers scattered around, and by crawling into them, he can shed any Crawlies picked up. He can also fight back against the Crawlies by using blaster sparkies fired horizontally straight from the nose, and by laying burper sparkies which wait until a Sputnik is flying overhead and then rise up to eliminate it. Very high-flying Sputniks are, unfortunately, immune. Burpers are also useful for changing direction, and can take out any Crawlies which happen to bump into them. Extra sparkies are awarded for picking up spindles, and can also be picked up when zipping along the thin data buses. Furthermore, misfired burper sparkies which end up lying on the PCB can be consumed and regurgitated later. Mapping is an essential feature to find Fatty's way around the immense circuit, and to help, the game has a small insert map showing some of the nearby obstacles, spindles, and a rough indication of Fatty's present position.

Fat Worm Blows a Sparky originally started life as Killer DOS, a mucho macho serious simulation of software worms invading computer systems, cloning themselves and corrupting all the disks. But DURELL decided that it was all getting slightly silly, and instead chose to release a game which had absolutely no relevance to anything whatsoever. And thus was Fatty created.

COMMENTS

Control keys: redefinable
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: good
Use of colour: mostly shades of green
Graphics: innovative 3D - remarkable
Sound: workmanlike
Skill levels: one
Screens: huge scrolling area

Wow! This game has got graphics which look so amazing that I don't think I can comment on them fairly. The title is unusual, if nothing else, but hardly prepares you for the stunning originality of the game. Playability and addictiveness are of the highest standard, but as for the graphics - well, what can I say? As far as animation and sold 3D goes, this is probably the best I have ever seen, though the colour accolade must still go to Lightforce. Now, if DURELL teamed up with FTL, I would probably be reduced to a moaning, speechless moron. But then, what's new?!

Not exactly a run-of-the-mill title for a computer game but then this isn't really a run-of-the-mill game. Stomping around the inside of a computer has been done many times before but DURELL has certainly done it well, and differently. Fat Worm, graphically, is as revolutionary as 3D Ant Attack was in its day; the 3D effect is ASTOUNDING. The only thing that spoils the graphics is the use of colour. After a while the bright green really does affect your eyes, though you can always turn down the colour control on your TV. Soundwise I have no grumbles - there are many effects during the game and a really good tune on the title screen. Controlling your Fat Worm is a mite difficult but given a little practice you will soon be turning on a sixpence. It isn't often that I feel that I have to add a new game to my relatively small collection, but this one's a must. Go and buy it now, your life will be incomplete without it!

So the worm turns. Not only that, he writhes and wriggles. You just won't believe the sort of graphics in this game. The perspective and sense of height are so realistic I got vertigo! Not just content with awesome graphics, the game play is terrific. Trying to steer the worm around with the Sputniks buzzing overhead, and all the time keeping in mind where you're going, is some game. It's so good to see something this original. It's just like nothing else. This is going to set a new standard for solid 3D.

Durrell
£9.95

Deep in the heart... yes, I say deeep in the heart of your Speccy wriggles the fattest worm ever to blow a sparky. Fat Worm is his name, and he's a Wormie. Now you may not know this (and why not?) but wormies are little microelectronic worms that inhabit your Spectrum, slithering and squirming around the circuits and busses (data, not No.79) looking for a disk drive. A what? Oh yes, one of them things like a microdrive only bigger, flatter and more reliable. Ho ho. Anyway, the purpose behind this questing is cloning, he wants a clone, or carbon copy of himself, 'cos as we all know "you're never alone with a clone!". Chortle snort wheeze.

You control Fat Worm's progress around the little silver solderings of the Speccy in question's circuit board; a cute 3D rendering, highly magnified of course, so that the chips are as tall as buildings. The game takes place on a number of different levels, allowing you to squirm up ramps and leap tall resistors in a single bound.

Life isn't all beer and skittles in the microworld, however, because there are bugs in the system (was it ever thus), and these ain't jest software bugs either. They're hard as snails. Bugs crawl the crevices and fly over you in their little "sputniks" - special flying machines, which they've evolved to chase wormies round the circuits. Wormies, in retaliation, have evolved the facility to blow sparkies, release a blast of electricity at the bugs to destroy them. Sparkies come in two varieties; the burper sparky and the blaster sparky. Burpers are like smart mines, waiting for a sputnik to fly overhead before they grab them and explode, while blasters fly from the wormie's mouth like bullets, to strafe the ground-based bugs. But these bugs are tough. If you miss 'em they fasten themselves to you and hang on tight... and if there's enough of them, they'll consume you... (urgh).

Help is at hand, though, because incorporated in all good computers there's a debugger (same to you) which can strip the little bug beggars off your back (get off my back!), enabling you to continue your quest. In order to clear the way of bugs so you can find the disk and gain power for your sparkies, you must eat 50 spindles. These are little power nodes, tiny rotating triangles, which you must seek and consume, and very nice they are too, warmed in the microwave and served with a little parsley.

Fat Worm is a very original concept - unusual these days. My mum always said that there's "nothing new under the sun". Well, she never looked under the hood of a Speccy, obviously. The graphics seem, on initial inspection, to be rather simplistic. But when you pass a tall building you start to see...wow...how much depth you've got to play with. This can be very unnerving, especially when you go to pick up a spindle, only to discover it's hovering in mid-air and you've got to jump at it off one of the buildings!

Fat Worm is a funny and absorbing game, requiring little effort to play, but some considerable skill to finish. Oh, incidentally, watch out for the pause routine, especially if you marvelled at the Atari ST or Amiga (spit) "bouncing ball" demo. An uncanny replica!

Label: Durell
Price: £9.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

"Well crucial, man" is how Durell Software describes Fat Worm Blows a Sparky.

You, as the worm in the title travel the inside of a Spectrum, collecting spindles and avoiding creepers, sputniks and sparkies.

The screen has a 'status' display in the lower portion, giving you an indication of how much energy you have left, score, hi-score etc. The remainder of your screen shows the world in which Wormie can travel. It's a plan view, pretending to be three-dimensional.

You're looking for a disc drive, but as you do so bugs swarm around and do unfriendly things to you. In an attempt to de-bug (ha, ha, ha) the system, you can shoot the various aliens. Like Durell says. Its well crucial man.

Screen movement is reasonably pleasant but the real disappointment is the worm itself. It looks uncomfortably similar to a couple of triangles, stuck together by a black line. The Spindles rotate better.

The gameplay is pacey - things keep strolling along in their own time and Wormie can almost be described as achieving a decent lick in some places.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Durell
PRICE: £9.95

Odd isn't quite the right word for this offering from Durell. As we've said elsewhere, this Somerset based company always seem to come up with something a bit different. Fat Worm Blows a Sparky could just be too different!

The game takes place inside the "electronic labyrinth" of a Spectrum. You are in control of Worm - one of those nasty little programs hackers like to insert into big systems.

Of course the Spectrum's internal defences are out to stop you completing your mission - to find a disc drive on which to clone yourself.

Before you find the drive you have to find and eat 50 rotating shapes called Spindles.

To defend itself against the Crawlies, Bugs and Sputniks your Worm is armed with Sparkies. You have two kinds of Sparkie. The neat Burper Sparky which is a sort of delay bomb which levitates to destroy flying Sputniks. Your worm "lays" these like eggs. Then there are the Blaster Sparkies which shoot out of your worm's nose and zap anything among the circuitry that's bothering it.

Sputniks drop bugs which crawl along and grab hold of your worm. Collect four and your worm will suffer a fatal error.

There's a map window at the bottom right of your screen which you can use to find those elusive Spindles - alongside is a status window which shows the number of Sparkies you've got left, the number of Spindles you've eaten and your current score/hi-score.

The graphics are interesting - but your worm lacks any sort of real character which detracts from the game's playability.

Its also quite hard to learn how to control the worm efficiently when you first load up the game. It has a sort of built in inertia which means you end up crashing into walls and such like. It's also difficult to tell which end is which at times. But then worms are like that, I suppose...

If you like computer in-jokes then this could be for you. If you're after something a bit more spectacular then check out Thanatos from the same company.

Domark
£9.95

Oh dear. I've generally liked Durell's games in the past, and their recent Thanatos is one of my current favourites but Fat Worm has turned out to be about as enticing as the name suggests.

You play the fat worm of the title, a sluggish, spindly thing that is wandering around the circuit board of a Spectrum (cue for lots of puns about "bugs" in the instructions). Along the way you have to climb up and down the ramps of the different databases to eat the floating triangles, and you have to eat fifty of these before finally locating the disc drive and cloning yourself. The triangles replenish your supply of 'blaster sparkies' which are used to kill the crawler bugs, and you also have a supply of 'burper sparkies' for killing the creeper bugs who are flying around in sputniks. If you think that it all sounds pretty daft you should try playing it...

The most interesting part of the game is the way the worm moves - he/she/it moves via alternate clockwise/anticlockwise swaying motions which are hard to control but actually create a realistic slug-like movement (mind you the swaying of the screen display made me feel sea sick).

The circuit board of the Spectrum is represented as a 3D overhead view, and from a programming and graphics point of view it's all quite clever. But from a fun and games point of view it all seems like a bit of a lost cause and for £9.95 Durell have fallen short of their usual entertainment value.