Enigma Variations
£11.99, £14.99
SAM Coupe

Four games that will test your brain rather than your trigger finger: in Nuclear Waste you try to save Earth by disposing of dangerous cannisters of waste in a giant spaceship. The objective is to launch the ship before the cannisters become volatile. A series of conveyor belts are set up for the cannisters to travel along and all you have to do is switch on the correct lift to move them up. The game only becomes challenging on the later levels when the conveyors speed up and more cannisters arrive. The simplistic graphics definitely don't do the Coupe justice, and Nuclear Waste soon gets tiresome.

Graphics are even worse than Nuclear Waste in Magic Caves. Playing the part of a ball(!) you roll around each level using the sliding platforms and lifts to collect a potion. Keys open doors and reveal secret passages. Magic Caves looks very similar to a game I once wrote in Spectrum basic! it took me half an hour and I didn't bother saving it. There's nothing here to make you want to come back for more.

The best of the lot is Blokade. It's well programmed and simple to tackle. Played against the clock, you have to change all the blocks on screen to the target colour by sliding the panels. When a block is surrounded with the correct colour you can change it and go on to the next. Playing Blokade soon puts a great strain on your eyes and the monotonous gameplay will only keep you going for a few games.

Bombed Out is graphically similar to Blokade with its neatly drawn sliding platforms and a timer to beat. You have to collect all the bonus flags and get to a bomb before it explodes. The playing area has skulls to avoid (they're deadly) and watch out for disappearing blocks!

Mind Games 1 is a collection of below average games that look cheap when you can see what the Sam Coupe can really do. The better ones are Blokade and Bombed Out, but even these leave a lot to be desired.

NICK [22%]

I'd hoped one of the four games would be mildly playable, but no, they're all dull. Graphics on each are very simplistic albeit colourful. Even at a budget price I would consider them all poor value for money.
MARK [21%]

LABEL: Enigma Variations
MEMORY: 256K
DISK: £14.99
TAPE: £11.99

Software for the SAM? Well I never did but Mindgames is a very poor substitute for REAL Coupe games..

BOMBED OUT

Terribly fast and dangerously bloomin' game. You take the form of a ball and you roll around choosing a route and diffusing bombs where they appear before they explode and you bomb out, collecting flags for bonus, but avoiding skulls and crossbones as you go. You must choose your route well or you'll find yourself trapped. A bonus round in which you hit fire for up to 100 points ends each level. Bombed Out graphics are very basic for the SAM. The game itself is simple to follow but not captivating enough to stop you from bombing out of the game itself.

BLOCKADE

If you like playing rubix cube then here's your chance to play it on computer. You use skill to co-ordinate all the colours on the screen in a race to beat time. It's a tricky game to play but the easy method of controls makes movement easy. The graphics are the same colour and pattern throughout the game (boring or what). It is fairly playable but I would rather play Magic Caves myself.

MAGIC CAVES

Here's a mind boggling game which will definitely do your brains in. With careful planning you can progress through higher levels. However, it is very tricky and every move is vital - a wrong move will cost you a life. The idea of the game is to collect magic potions and escape from the cave, but before you can get to the potions you must collect keys scattered around the cave. Some of the keys when collected will make things appear or disappear. The graphics are good and you can go on playing this game for hours on end.

NUCLEAR WASTE

Help! Earth is being destroyed by radiation from Nuclear waste - your job is to ship canisters of nuclear waste to a spaceship and launch it into the galactic bin! (Greenpeace will need a shuttle soon!) You must use your skill to turn lifts on and carry the waste safely to the interstellar dustcart. The graphics are small and undetailed and the game is boring.

JOSE'S COMMENT:
I certainly wouldn't be about to spend actual money on this game. I liked Caves best but even that's very simplistic.

PHIL'S COMMENT:
Ha, ha, ha! It's a load of old bullock's droppings converted to the SAM and sold to software starved users. Don't buy this - look at some of the great new SAM games instead!