Producer: Incentive Software
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.50
Author: John Hunt

The title page of this new strategy game shows a millionaire's mansion next to a drab looking block of flats - rags to riches. When the loading is completed the screen clears and you hear a telephone ringing - could it be fame on the other end?

As a home computer owner, you have written a program and are willing to invest £500 of your own money into marketing it. Can you make it to the top?

First up comes the inevitable strategy option menu - in this case a choice of what the program is to be: arcade, adventure, board game, business/serious program, educational, management game, utility program, wargame or Other. Having made this decision you are told that every good program will consist of a) good writing b) good presentation, c) original ideas or d) should maintain interest. You have 20 points and you must allocate the points according to your thoughts on these four headings. When this is done you may choose to market the game yourself, or sell it to a software house to raise more capital. Should you sell there are a few offers (the biggest of a meagre bunch of bids coming from Incentive of course). If none are acceptable you can carry on yourself.

The game presents most of the likely problems confronting a small software business and takes in such items as the cost of advertising and duplication. Decisions must be made regarding articles and PR in magazines, raising loan capital at the bank, writing new programs and whether to increase sales by adding short second programs to the other side of your tapes.

Each month a chart shows your progress, how many tapes have been sold in the month, how many games on the market, total sales, tapes still in stock, and on the debit side - rates, phones etc, total assets and amount borrowed from the bank. Interspersed news items inform you of things such as weather condition affecting sales of games, or whether a magazine has published an article about your products. If the worst should come to the worst, you can always sell out...

COMMENTS

Control keys: mostly numeric keys, all screen prompted
Keyboard play: very fast responses
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: effective text, detailed scenes
Sound: average
Skill levels: 1

Millionaire has some very neat graphics for a strategy game. Colour is well used for the text to distinguish items at a glance, and the monthly bar chart showing your progress is quite an exciting matter. Every now and then, if you're doing well, you are offered "a chance to reconsider", which takes you back to the first option menu where you can decide on the value of content, presentation etc. I thought this was an enjoyable romp with several grains of truth buried in it!

For anyone contemplating marketing their own software, Millionaire may turn out to be less of a game and more a way of life. Given the normal limitations of a computer program, this one seems to echo problems encountered rather well - at least, if you've never encountered them before, it might seem to! it does tend to get a bit repetitive after a while, but I thought that was offset by the interest created in seeing your company rise and rise.

Chance elements can sometimes seem needlessly cruel in strategy games. Millionaire has a recurrent busybody who causes you a loss of sales by raking up your past which has obviously not been all that savoury. But on the whole life treats you kindly in this game compared with some. The graphics are very good, especially the pictures of your company's headquarters, which starts off in a terraced house, and moves onto a more salubrious suburb (I haven't made more money than that yet). I noticed that the scale on the bar chart alters to take into account the sums being discussed. Millionaire may not have quite the depth of options open to a player that some other strategy games have, but I found it all quite compulsive.

Having just written what you consider to be a commercially viable program, your job now is to try and sell it. With just £500 of your own, the ultimate aim is to achieve millionaire status.

Frank: Since 95 per cent of this game is question and answer; the graphics aren't really important - even so, they look good. For me, there's nothing like testing your ability to succeed in business. HIT

Ian: There are many games of this type on the market, but wheeling and dealing in an effort to make a million is great fun - especially with characters like 'Honest Harry'. HIT

Phil: While it's fun to play, the lack of originality is a big problem. And I found the virtual absence of graphics and sound tended to make playing just a little tedious. MISS

IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, JOIN THEM

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.50

It will take several months of play to reach your target in Millionaire for the 48K Spectrum from Incentive Software. The idea is to start a software house and then either sell your products to other companies for them to market or sell directly to the retail trade. The problem is that the scales of success incorporated into the game are such that it will take a long time to get anywhere near a million pounds or dollars in profit.

During the game you can specialise in a specific type of software and you have to tell the program which qualities you desire most in a product. You will then be informed of your current financial position, depending on how well your software is selling and the amount you have had to pay in bills.

Unfortunately you cannot make large profits quickly because of the low limit to numbers of program copies you can make by duplication. Another difficulty is that the game relies heavily on luck. You may put in one set of figures during one session and then enter them again during the next session and have completely different results.

Despite the minor flaws in the program, Millionaire is one of the few addictive strategy games on the market. You may not become a millionaire or learn how to handle the business of a software house but you should find the experience engrossing.