Producer: Knightsoft
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code

Card games on computers have always been popular with software houses, but this version of Poker has the added dimension of the seductive Mindy to play against for clothes!

The actual Poker game is a quite traditional version of five card draw. The computer (Ossie) deals you and Mindy five cards each. You then bet against each other on the drawn hand until the best are equalised, follow this by rejecting the cards in the hand you do not want in an attempt to better your hand. Then there is a final round of betting until they are equal again, at which time the hands are 'laid down'with the best hand winning. At any stage you may either STAND (do nothing with the cards), BET or FOLD (concede the hand). Recognised Poker hands are used; in descending chronological order these are Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, Full House, Flush, Straight Run, Three, Two Pairs, Pairs and Highest card.

After loading the screen presents you with a dancing card with legs, hands and head. This is Ossie, who spends a lot of time like some fairground shouter, tempting you to play with Mindy (cards that is). Pressing a key results in Ossie saying, Okay, let's play. Mindy says you'll play for her dress and she'll play for your shirt. On the left your five cards are drawn and displayed and the betting starts.

To get Mindy beginning to undress is quite hard work, since both of you start with £150 and only when that has gone will she start shedding at the rate of £50 per article. The programmer has ensured that she is reasonably well dressed, so there's quite a way to go!

COMMENTS

Control keys: 6/7 raise/lower bets, numeric keys 1-5 for card changes
Use of colour: very simple, mostly black and white
Graphics: cards well drawn, some amusing simple animation on Mindy and Ossie, nothing stunning though
Sound: card shuffles and useful beeps
Lives: as many clothes as you can wear

If they are well done, card games on a computer can be fun, especially as they offer the opportunity to a solo player to enjoy two-handed , games. This one has the added spice of being strip poker, although cheating is possible as the computer obviously can not monitor your state of dress! The screen layout is clean and simple with Ossie using speech balloons to prompt the game at its various stages. Occasionally Mindy will interrupt to use the balloon with comments like 'You've just lost your shirt', or expletives of a mild manner if she loses a large pot of money. Some of her phraseology leads me to suspect that though she may be someone's wife, Mindy is clearly no lady. The input routine for betting and changing cards is simple, but I did feel the response speed could have been improved quite a bit. Obviously the striptease element of this game resides on how well the graphics of Mindy herself are drawn. Colour is only used on the left of the screen for the playing cards and these are perfectly adequate in detail and size. For the rest, all is black and white. The line drawing of Mindy is about as good for its size as you could probably get on a Spectrum, and manages to make her look reasonably attractive, if a bit solid of face. More animation would have helped and should be possible, but perhaps the producers felt that this would make the program too expensive for the likely number of sales it will achieve. There is a limited market for card games on computers - this one is a good Poker implementation - it's largely a question of whether Mindy will help extra special sales. Clearly it should not be sold to juveniles over the age of eighteen, nor to Miners.

Knightsoft
£???

At first I thought this was going to be just another card game which you play with open-minded friends. Instead, you have to play against Mindy, an animated woman. If you are a dab hand at poker, you will see her take off her dress, bra and pants. If you are a feminist, let me add that I did try to ring Knightsoft up to see if there was a male version, but failed to get through.

You both start with £150. Each hand has a maximum of £25. All the features in a poker game are there, such as stand, fold and raise.

I realise this game is a bit of a novelty, but it would stand upon its own for the poker alone.

The animation is well drawn and I have to admit the game did make my palms sweat as I had a good hand.