Producer: Martech
Retail Price: £7.95
Language: Machine code
Author: John Wilson

Unlike some sports simulations Geoff Capes Strong Man requires more than mere joystick waggling. The game begins with a training session, the outcome of which governs your performance for the six events. The task for this session is to build Geoff's strength up as much as you can. At the bottom of the screen you see an empty bar graph. You have to waggle the joystick like crazy for a few seconds to get the red bar as far up the scale as possible. You can wimp out, and accept the default strength, but it's not that macho.

Every event begins with a rest period, when you share out the strength you have built up. The energy shown on the main bar graph can be allocated to the eight body parts represented by icons around the edge of the screen. Moving the arrow over an icon, you hold down fire until the desired amount of energy has been transferred onto the smaller bar graph contained within the icon. Repeat this Process until all parts of the body are awarded some strength.

During an event, the rate at which a muscle's energy reserve is depleted depends on the level of effort you selected at the start and how often that particular part of the body is used during the task. Care has to be taken in allocating strength reserves, for if any part of the body is called upon during an event and found to have no strength, then Geoff collapses exhausted and you have to begin the game afresh.

During an event, the action is viewed on the central area of the screen, around which eight icons are grouped. The most novel feature of this game is the way in which joystick waggling has been replaced with 'icon chasing', making it much more than a 'how much punishment can you give your joystick' game. The Z and X keys are used at the start of each event to move a horizontal bar up and down on a scale from 0 to 100, indicating the effort Geoff is to put into the task in hand. The more effort Geoff puts into an event, the more rapidly he can complete it, and the more difficult it is for you!

During the Lorry Pull, Barrel Loading and Car Roll events, the eight muscle icons around the screen flash, indicating the order in which the muscles are called upon as Geoff gets going. You must follow the order of the flashing icons by moving a yellow arrow over each icon in the sequence and pressing fire.

If you manage to follow the order, then the icon you selected flashes green. If you select an icon out of sequence then it flashes red. If you fall too far behind the sequence, Geoff grinds to a halt - and if you mess up totally, you can wait until all the icons flash red, indicating that the sequence is about to start again. The speed at which the icons flash yellow depends on the amount of effort you have selected - at 100 percent you daren't blink. You are competing against the clock in all three events.

The Log Chop requires you to press the fire button with split second timing. An Axe moves to and fro across the screen, above a log. When fire is pressed it descends and chops a lump out of the wood. Sections of softwood take one chop to cut through, hardwood needs two chops and knots, toughest of all, three chops. The aim is to select an easy section of log to attack, so you can cut through within the time limit.

Barrel Loading uses both joystick waggling and icon chase. Geoff must load five barrels onto a truck within the time allowed. Waggling the joystick moves him over to the barrel and makes him pick it up. From here on, chase the icons until he reaches the truck, then press fire at the right moment and Geoff lobs the barrel into the truck. Then it's back across the screen to collect the next barrel...

The Fairground Bell relies on a sustained period of waggling, until all of the muscle icons flash red indicating that Geoff is ready. Hitting the fire button brings the hammer down with a vengeance. The quicker you are at hitting fire after the muscles have flashed red, the better Geoff does.

Sumo Wrestling is the last event, and the only event where Geoff is forced to take on another competitor, face to face. The winner is the person who pushes his opponent out of the ring within the qualifying time. Pressing the fire button at the right moment gains ground for Geoff: bad timing loses ground.

Although Geoff is awarded a score for the completion of each event, the aim is to complete all six. If he fails in any event, either because he was exhausted or because he failed to qualify, then a new game starts. Should Geoff emerge from the events victorious you can have another training session and begin again, but this time the events are harder to complete than the time before. If you want to keep measure of your muscle power, then remember to enter your name on the high score table.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q to T left, Y to P right, 1 to 0 up, A to L down, SPACE to fire
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Keyboard play: not recommended, especially for building up strength
Use of colour: effective
Graphics: nothing special, really, but adequate
Sound: appropriate tunes at the start of each event
Skill levels: one, getting progressively more difficult
Screens: 6 events, plus High Score table and training screens

Though not being over keen on this type of simulation I was quite impressed by Geoff Capes Strong Man. Unlike other sport type simulations, this one was not wholly dependent on joystick waggling. The muscle selector is a great idea - combined with the effort selector, quite a bit of control is available over Geoff. For a one-load game, there is quite lot scope, with the six events being quite different from one another. This is definitely one of the best games of this type to appear on the Spectrum. Worth a look at over the yuletide season.

Sports simulations have become a bit long in the tooth now but Martech's latest release injects new vigour into the now worn idea. Because the game doesn't depend so much on smashing your joystick it is much more enjoyable. The graphics aren't that impressive and the game suffers from a distinct lack of animation, but overall it presents a fair challenge. This type of game is very playable but after you have played all the events it can start to get a bit boring. Geoff Capes is definitely one of those games worth getting if you know you like the type.

I liked the way in which reaction skills as well as joystick destroying ability have been combined in this game. The events all present a fair challenge - with the possible exception of the Log Chop, which is graphically uninspiring and fairly simplistic. You just have to crank effort up to maximum and keep pressing the fire button at the right moment. Overall a nice competitive game, from a different mould to Daley's and the rest. The tunes which accompanied each event were quite jolly, too!

Martech
£7.95

When Castle Rathbone's very own Charles Atlas, the Ed, said that in just seven days he could make a strong woman out of me I guessed he'd bought me a chest expander! Instead it turned out to be Martech's muscle bound micro-game. Now I must confess that ever since a certain Daley Thompson was responsible for the demise of my second joystick in a weekend I've had an aversio to Sinclair sports, but they say that a healthy body makes a healthy mind, so here goes...

Unlike the Track and Field mob, Geoff Capes concerns himself with displays of awesome strength. He pulls trucks, chops logs, rolls cars, loads barrels and rings the fairground bell... then he relaxes with a bit of Sumo wrestling! Or rather, you do and, sigh of relief, it's not all joystick bashing.

Obviously before you can even punch your way out of a paper bag you'll need to build some muscle, which you can do either energetically, with ten seconds of wrist action or the lazy way, by pressing fire and accepting what God gives you. You then allocate the strength between eight muscle areas, from ankles to shoulders.

Achieving each of the stunts calls for different skills. The ones involving vehicles consist of chasing the illuminating muscle icon with a pointer and pressing fire as an animated Mr Capes (be very polite here - he's bigger than me) flexes centre screen. Barrel loading sees the addition of joystick pumping and bell ringing could kill yet another Quickshot, but chopping and wrestling call more for timing. In each case you can apply more effort to the activity to speed it up though this uses muscles more quickly. As any remainder is added to muscle replenished it's worth aiming for efficiency.

It's not perfect, but it should keep a lot of people happy with its variety and difficulty. And here's a playing tip - if you really want to build muscles like Geoff's... do some press ups while the game's loading!

REMAKE REMODEL

Those cheapie re-releases, sifted and sorted by Marcus Berkmann.

Yup, games these days are like cats - they have about nine lives. First we see them on full price labels, then they reappear on various compilations, then they're out again as cheapies. In the past YS hasn't taken an awful lot of notice, but there are so many now, we just can't ignore 'em. So here's the first Remake Remodel, and the first person to write in and tell us what that reference is, wins three cheapies!

Ricochet
£1.99

Muscle straining caper which originally appeared from Martech in 1985, but now turns up again on another new Mastertronic label. It's very much in the early sportsim mould - six events in which Geoff pulls trucks, chops logs, rolls cars and then relaxes with a bit of Sumo wrestling. The skill lies in allocating strength between eight muscle areas, from ankles to shoulders, but there's also some traditional joystick waggling to keep Kempston in business. It's hardly a world-beater, unlike good ol' Geoff, but it hasn't aged too badly and still plays fairly smoothly.

Publisher: Martech
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair

Are you as strong as a horse, built like a mountain with muscles like a pile driver? Probably not, but if you attempt Geoff Capes Strong Man you will certainly sprout some muscles in your joystick arm.

The idea is to pretend Geoff hasn't got a brain. You take its place and while he proves his superior strength by towing lorries, chucking barrels and rolling over cars, you must send the stimulae to his muscles enabling him to perform those mighty feats.

Firstly, build up his muscles in a short training session which lasts all of ten seconds. Waggle the joystick back and forth, Decathlon style, to get his muscle rating as high as possible. You then have a few more seconds to designate some muscle to eight drawings round the side of the screen. Those are depicted as a foot, arm, chest, leg, and so on.

You will soon learn which events need more muscle and designate more to the arm or chest accordingly. If you are a wimp and can't even manage the training sessions, just press the fire button and you will be given some muscle, though not very much.

The first event is towing a lorry. As Geoff moves, the muscles he uses are outlined in yellow. Rush the pointer to that particular box and press the fire button. If you make it in time, it will flash green, then hurry onto the next muscle. There is a pattern to follow as arm, chest and leg muscles are brought into play. It is fast and you have to be on your toes. If you run out of energy on a specific muscle, Geoff collapses and you have to start all over again.

Next, the log chop - which is simple. Just wait until the blade whizzes over the section of wood you have chosen and press the fire button. The blade comes down and knocks off a chunk. Some areas are softwood, others are hardwood which may need two or three chops of the blade. The only thing that can go wrong is running out of time.

Rolling the car follows the same mode of play as towing the lorry, but putting barrels on a truck is more difficult. The remaining two screens portray Geoff hitting a fairground bell and doing some Sumo wrestling.

Geoff Capes Strong Man is unusual, but it soon begins to pall as the events are merely repeated each time at higher difficulty levels. Granted, another famous name has been dredged up to lend credence to the game, but at least Strong Man is different from the run of the mill sporting simulations. You couldn't call it exciting, but it will test your staying power.

Label: Ricochet
Author: Martech/Ian MacCardle
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K/128K
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Jerry Muir

Mastertronic's new Ricochet label, which aims to send oldies bouncing back, gets off the ground with Geoff Capes' Strongman, a sports simulation which was originally swamped in the marathon rush of Track 'n' Field variation. There's the obligatory wrist exercise at the start, but once you've allocated this body building to eight muscle areas you'll need rather more than an indestructible joystick.

Take the Truck Pull, where you have to chase the illuminated muscle with a cursor, like a manic Simon, to heave the flatbed across the line. Timing is the secret of other tests of strength, such as the Log Chop - a race against time to bring down the axe in the right place.

Sport simulations have a lasting appeal and at this price no fan of the game-type should be without Big Geoff.

Martech
£7.95

Oh no, I thought, my TAC2 'indestructible' joystick had just snapped whilst playing Supertest, and I couldn't afford to get another to test a similar game.

Well, there is an interesting option in this game. The infamous left/right action only has to be has to be done at the start of the game to to set the overall strength which is split between each muscle, thereafter it becomes a matter of strategy in assigning the amount of power and effort each muscle puts into each task.

Fortunately for me, the 'training session' of building up your strength can be bypassed and a random amount of strength is allocated. The tasks are Truck Pull, Log Chop, Barrel Loading, Car Roll, Fairground Bell, Sumo Wrestling.

During each event some action, timing the pressing of the fire button etc, is required and I was not going to get out of the L/R action that easily, for Barrel Loading and Fairground Bell we were back to it and the keyboard had to suffer for the sake of this review.

Martech have tried to do something do something a bit different and have succeeded on the whole, the graphics are not as detailed as in some varieties of this game, but the slightly more varied gameplay and extra thought required make up for it. Worth your consideration.