Producer: Vision
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Kevin Bezant

Subtitled 'Ten Years After', 1984 is set in a nightmare world where computers trap people. You are Smiffy, and you've just about had enough of the Central Computer so you decide to go and switch it off. Naturally enough the computer has other ideas and plenty of defences like cameras that throw plasma bolts at you.

This is a platform game with lifts and numerous bonus objects as well as hazards on route. The various lifts have electrified bases, so stepping onto one has to be well timed in order not to fry, and the screens are constructed in such a way that several lifts have to be employed, or the same two several times. On each but the last two screens the object is to get the key and put it in the keyhole to get to the next level, and do this by jumping over the jellydroids (a trifle annoying) and avoiding the harmless but annoying eagle which carries you back to the beginning again if it catches you.

Each time you bump into a jelly droid or one of the pingpong plasma bolts some energy is drained. When this has gone a further contact results in an explosion.

COMMENTS

Control keys: 617 left/right, 0 jump
Joystick: none, doesn't need it
Keyboard play: responsive, but watch out for jump timing
Colour: excellent
Graphics: varied, detailed and reasonably smooth
Sound: good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3 (officially)
Screens: 8

With three or four lifts, some going all the way, some only half way, some up, some down, this is a platform game with an extremely busy looking screen. Jellydroids, coiled springs and plasma bolts which bounce around like balls, mean that you can barely take a step without losing energy. The real skill lies in timing the jumps to and from lifts and fortunately Smiffy jumps very nicely. The game has a practice mode for all eight levels which seems a bit strange, because it means you can play with unlimited lives. The graphics are very inventive and brightly coloured. All in all, quite addictive.

I think this game has been carefully engineered to be challenging and it almost comes off. The problem is the eagle which /lies around and carries Smiffy back to the beginning. The game was difficult enough for enjoyment without that, but every time you get caught in his wretched talons you can sit back for a half a minute and wait until you're dumped back at the start. By the fifth time this happens you're about ready to give up on it. Strange that the practice mode gives you unlimited lives and lets you play all levels (?). Good reasonably smooth graphics, and plenty of playability, but the price seems way over the top to me for what it actually is.

Platform, jumping games do seem to be among the most addictive, and this one is no exception, although because of the practice mode I can't see its lasting value being all that good. After all, maddening as it may be, it's the fact that you want to get onto the next damned screen that gives a game its addictiveness. Here you can play any one you want. Good for time-pressed reviewers but not so good for the player generally. The graphics and sound effects are very good and the game is playable, but very pricey - and that's not such good news.

TEN YEARS BEHIND THE TIMES

Memory: 48K
Price: £9.95
Joystick:

According to Smiffy, a character in 1994, a new game for the Spectrum, George Orwell chose correctly with his Big Brother theory but had the year wrong - it should have been 1994.

Apart from that there is nothing remotely interesting or startling in the game. It looks as if manufacturer Visions has pumped on the Manic Miner bandwagon. Smiffy has to climb a structure of platforms which are being bombarded continually by alien creatures. He has to climb through the nightmare world and attack the central computer which, in the best Tronic traditions, is holding the world in its metallic grasp. Switching off the computer will win the game.

The screen is filled with a series of exotic blips and blobs which could be anything. If the scenario is a nightmare, the instructions are worse, as you have to grope round the keyboard to find which keys to press.

The high score table and paragraph giving details of the game may be futuristic in style but they are also illegible. The 'computer-style' characters are too heavy and it is difficult to distinguish between numbers and characters on the high score table.

There is nothing to distinguish the program from any of the others which resemble Manic Miner. If you are new to computers, however, and have not seen Manic Miner you may like 1994.

The game is produced by Visions, 1 Felgate Mews, Studland Street, London W6 93T.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys
FROM: Visions, £6.95

According to Visions, George Orwell got it wrong and the Central Computer didn't take over the world until 1994, hence the subtitle 'Ten Years After'. You play the one person who has dared to challenge the computer and plans to penetrate the eight levels of security to switch the computer off.

The scenario sounds exciting enough but the actual game reminds me of the Spectrum classic Manic Miner where you guide Miner Willy through a number of caverns. Substitute Smiffy for Willy and you've got the whole idea of the game.

On each level you have to collect the key and insert it into the lock which will take you on to the next level. To make your task difficult the computer has deployed its security cameras which fire plasma bolts at you, together with jelly droids, buzz saws and springs.

Smiffy has a certain number of power points per life and contact with any of the nasties knocks one point off this. Once his power reaches zero he dies and you have to start the level again. The only things that will actually kill Smiffy with one touch are the electric floors.

Unfortunately the game lacks some of the appeal of its forebear. The graphics are fairly basic and movement is a little slow.

Only having eight levels, the game is little repetitive. The graphics are the same on each level, only the layout differs. It is harder to get through a level than on other similar games but with so few levels it would need to be.

1994 is a very difficult game to play but lacks rather a lot of the polish that we have come to expect from Spectrum games. If you like platform-type games and are looking for a new one to try, you may enjoy it, but the chances are that you will soon be dissatisfied.