Producer: Gamma Software
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.50
Language: Machine code
Author: Simon Johnson

Madhatter is a game which has lithe if anything to do with Alice in Wonderland. The title is very much an excuse for a simple idea. The scenario seems mad enough; it's the Madhatter's Un-Birthday and some friends are supposed to be coming for tea. Unfortunately the place is in a dreadful mess and must be tidied up. The mess seems to be made from sweets and chocolate rolls, the very things he needs for the tea. The object of the game is go around picking up ten sweets for each roll and hitting the top of the screen. Each time you do this a roll appears in the score line and after five have appeared you go onto the next screen. The unpleasant side of life here are the mice, which steal sweets (and don't forget you need ten sweets for every roll), the vacuum cleaner on the right of the screen which kills on contact, and other objects which fly across at random, also killing. And that's about it.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q/A up/down, N/M left/right
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: average responsiveness, sensible keys
Use of colour: average
Graphics: jerky, on the small side
Sound: not bad
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: 1
Special features:

This is one of those rush around the screen and grab the goodies games! The graphics are a little flickery but fast. The appeal of getting the sweets plus a chocky roll soon wears thin, making this one of those average to fair type games.

You've got the speed, you've got the maneuverability, you've even got the brains but why can't you get off that screen? This is about the most infuriating game I have ever played. The graphics are nothing special and there is only one screen. The game type is more or less out of date now - all you do is run around (very fast) and collect things while avoiding the nasties.

Madhatter can be summed up as one of those games that might be worth buying at a budget price. It has very little to offer in terms of being exciting or even very skillful, since all you have to do is dodge and collect. We've seen this sort of thing many times before. The graphics are rather small, a bit jerky and lacking in detail or interest. Not really worth it.

David: In this game, you play the part of the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland who, you surely remember, is having a tea-party to celebrate his un-birthday... but that's where the connection ends, I'm afraid.

Your task is to collect sweets and chocolate rolls from around the screen, which itself consists of very unexciting graphics; the vacuum cleaners are very shabbily defined and the mice, etc, are such grim programming specimens as to be almost unrecognisable. Moving your character square around the screen, you move into stationary and moving blobs, whilst avoiding others. The only difficult thing is getting out of the way of the baddies - difficult only because they go from side to side at silly speeds.

At first the game seems quite tricky, but soon becomes simplistic. I was looking forward to seeing some screen variations but I was disappointed. With graphics as poor as these, and no sound or variation to speak of, this game will be played once and once only. I remember games like this having trouble on the market when the Spectrum was released two years or so ago! 1/5 MISS

Roger: Preparations for parties that demand attention to sweets, chocolate rolls, mice and vacuum cleaners may be your cup of tea - but for me, it's not mad enough by half. It's got to be a miss. 1/5 MISS

Ron: Madhatter lacks the professionalism we've come to expect from Spectrum software - it's too fast and block graphics just aren't on anymore. Pretty much a boring game, I'm afraid. It's a miss! 2/5 MISS

MACHINE: 48k Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Gamma Software
PRICE: £5.50

The problems involved in organising a tea-party! It's the Mad Hatter's un-birthday and he hasn't prepared any food.

Why an un-birthday, though? Don't ask me, it's Lewis Carroll's fault. In this game, you have to help the Hatter collect the food from around the screen and put it on the table ready for his guests.

There's a number of sweets on the screen which need rounding up and a chocolate roll at the bottom. You can't get the roll, though, until you have ten sweets. Once you have collected the right number of sweets, you can go for the roll. Then, put it on the table at the top of the screen to claim your extra points.

Get five rolls and you've made it the next level. Here, everything gets faster and there are more bouncing objects to avoid.

Life is not easy on the first level, though. There's a mouse and some poison, which are both out to get you. And one suck from that hoover and you've had it.

This game would be fairly average except for a bug which makes it almost unplayable. The character of the Mad Hatter keeps moving, even if you're not pressing a direction key or holding the joystick.

The Hatter will move to the left by about three character squares and will even shoot off course when you're trying to move him in a straight line. Until this is sorted out, I wouldn't buy this game. Mad Hatter runs either from the keyboard or with a Kempston joystick.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp
FROM: Gamma, £5.50

When a little-known software house brings out a game with a quirky title, thoughts race to the first releases of Bug-Byte and Ultimate; could this be another Pssst! or Manic Miner? Alas, no, there's nut much new or original here.

You control the 'mad hatter' who has to collect ten sweets (for his unbirthday tea) from around the screen. He can then go to the bottom of the screen to collect a chocolate roll; this must be done five times to complete the sheet.

However, it's not quite that simple. The 'hatter' is pestered by mice who steal his sweets, poison which will lose him a life, and worst of all the dreaded vacuum cleaners positioned at the right of the screen. It he gets too close he is sucked to an unpleasant death. Luckily these can be frozen for a while by the plug which appears at intervals.

Your character can move in all four directions, the screen layout is plain and there are no obstacles to manoeuvre around. The graphics can only be described as poor, badly drawn and small, although the animation is fairly lifelike. The sound consists of a droning buzz which soon becomes annoying.

The only redeeming factor is the speed it must be played at to stay alive though once the first screen has been mastered subsequent sheets shouldn't pose any problems as they are the same only with more hazards.

Alice games have a pretty poor history to date and this one does little to change that. Alice in Wonderland released a while back by Audiogenic had excellent graphics but proved to be a very dull game.

This game has appalling graphics but offers some interesting game-play. Clearly what's needed is a merger of the two positive elements. As it stands though I can't see many people turning up for this Mad Hatter's tea party.

This interesting, new program may be basically a Gridrunner-style game but, believe it or not it's fdifferent. Large, chunky graphics make this game appear attractive but the movement, even though in machine code, is terrible.

Even when standing still your Mad Hatter's legs and arms dance about madly. The vacuum cleaners (well, they look like vacuum cleaners if you don't examine them too closely) move with quick jerks up and down the right-hand side of the screen.

The mice which the vacuum cleaners spit out move so speedily that it's impossible tot see if their legs or even tails move. The sound is okay to begin with but soon begins to be annoying. I can't say I enjoyed this game.

RICHARD BONIFACE

Games like this make me want to cry. Why, oh why, do software house so often have good ideas and then fail to realise them properly? In its present form it is a reasonable game, extremely addictive and bug-free, but it is let down by its barely satisfactory graphics. Come on Gamma. Go out and buy a sprite-generation routine.

ROB PATRICK