Producer: Ocean
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.90
Language: Machine code
Author: C.F. Urquhart

Hunchback seems to have been quite a while a'coming, so it's pleasing to be able to report that it seems worth the waiting. In some sense it's a platform, hole-leaping game that takes place on one platform. The story, as the title says, is set on a real castle and you are the (well known) hunchback, Quasimodo. Your task is to rescue Esmerelda from the stronghold. To do this you must jump, leap and dodge your way across no less than 15 screens of sheer torture.

The screen shows a large wall reaching half way up. Quasimodo starts on the left and he must reach the bell rope on the right. At the base of the screen is a graphic representation of the 15 ramparts to be tackled. The problems encountered include fire balls which must be leapt, pits to be swung across on a rope, and others which need several ropes, castellations filled with spearmen who raise and lower their spears and must be jumped, and then combinations of all these elements. Additionally there is a red knight climbing the wall. If he reaches the top before Quasimodo gets across, he sticks his sword into his bottom! If you get through to the final screen you are rewarded by the sight of Esmerelda stuck in her tower, ready for rescue.

COMMENTS

Control keys: good, Q/W left right and SYMBOL SHIFT for jump
Joystick: Kempston, Protek, AGF, Sinclair ZX 2
Keyboard play: responsive but jump timing very hard
Colour: good
Graphics: good
Sound: good tunes
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: 15

The graphics are smooth, well detailed and nicely animated, especially Quasimodo, and the colours are well used too. Quite what the tune 'If you go down to the woods today...' has got to do with Quasimodo I don't know, but it sounds good. I found this game very playable, although when you jump across the pit on a rope, timing has to be spot on with no +1 or -1 variation. I think that could have been made easier.

At first playing Hunchback is fun and difficult, but the screens are made up of re-using the same elements in different combinations and eventually it gets visually boring. It certainly demands skills of timing and reaction, especially when jumping over spears and dodging two arrows or fireballs coming from opposite directions.

Hunchback looks very good, bright, cheerful and with a loud tune. I think it could have had a bit more sound during the frame though. It's also quite difficult to play well, but in the end I think it palls as there isn't quite enough variation in the screens. This game will probably appeal to younger players as an intermediate stage between very simple games and the more complicated ones that are now appearing. But on the whole quite good value for money.

Based on a classic theme, the player's job is to enact the part of Quasimodo and rescue the beautiful Esmerelda while avoiding the guards and fireballs, and having to jump over pits of fire. At the end of each screen Quasimodo must ring 'the bells, the bells'.

John: Quasi' is quite easy to control, but the 3D effect sometimes makes it a bit difficult to judge when to jump and so on. Nevertheless, that's not really a problem, and the speed of the game is quite comfortable throughout. 8/10

Tony: One really amusing thing about the game is that 'Quasi' looks like he's wearing high heels, and the guard seems to be doing a goose-step. 8/10

Mark: One teeny weeny 'bug' seems to be present - 'Quasi' can't use the bridges the knight builds. Still, it doesn't spoil the player's enjoyment one bit. 9/10

Producer: Ocean, 48K
£5.90 (2)
Author: Chris Urquhart

This turns out to be a worthwhile Spectrum version of the arcade original, its main drawback, perhaps, being that it keeps combining already used elements in geometric progression, which lowers its playing attractiveness. You're Quasimodo (a well known hunchback) and you must cross the castle ramparts to rescue the lovely Esmerelda from her tower prison. There are 15 screens in which you must jump the castellations, swing over fire pits, jump castellations filled with spear raising soldiers, dodge missiles and do all these things in combination. On each screen there is a red knight climbing up the castle wall. If he reaches the top before you start getting safely across, he sticks his sword somewhere unmentionable. Rope swinging is a very tricky business with correct timing essential - perhaps too finicky. Good control keys, joystick: Kempston, Protek, AGF, Sinclair 2. Skill levels, only 1, lives 3, good value and reasonably addictive. Overall CRASH rating 66%

THE BELLS ARE RINGING

Memory: 48K
Price: £6.90
Joystick: Kempston, Protek, Sinclair

Enthusiats for the popular amusement arcade game Hunchback will enjoy the version from Ocean. You are Quasimodo, the notorious Hunchback of Notre Dame, who in legend rang the bells of the famous cathedral. In the game you have to rescue your sweetheart Esmerelda, who is imprisoned in a tower on the cathedral battlements. You perform the selfless deed by leaping over fireballs, swinging on ropes and ringing the bells, pursued all the time by a tenacious French soldier.

The game as released is a more or less direct copy of the original arcade game, which makes it simple in design but at the same time a sure winner with those who have unloaded a fortune in 10 pence pieces in dingy halls of pleasure. There are 15 screens but they lack the variety of many arcade games, being based on three or four basic configurations with added hazards at the later stages. On the plus side, the game is challenging but very easy to play and also addictive.

Graphics are competent if not awe-inspiring. Quasimodo is a respectable size, which makes a change from some of the tiny stick-figures which feature in some games. The main difficulty with the graphics is that old Spectrum chestnut of how to prevent the colours spilling over when one colour over-writes another.

In Hunchback, as an example when the green Quasimodo falls to his doom, sections of the red wall also turn green momentarily. That was less of a fault previously than it appears now, with companies like Ultimate and Software Projects producing games which apparently solve the problem.

The action is pacy but not so fast that it discourages the less nimble-fingered among us. Timing rather than sheer speed is the secret of success in Hunchback.

Ocean has produced a game which, although it does not dazzle the eye or numb the brain with its complexity and design, is nevertheless a good, solid version of an arcade classic.