Producer: Mastertronic
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Geoff Foley

Planet 54.7 has suffered an attack with deadly chemicals weapons, leaving only twenty-six survivors. They are all suffering from severe brain damage and, to make matters worse, are lost in a reactor maze. As the Commander of Octagon Squad it's your job to rescue the survivors by beaming them out through the teleport fence. Luckily, you have at your disposal a team of Equadroids that must be used to block off maze exits and channel the zombie-like humans in the right direction. Tables can be moved to block corridors and doorways opened with the appropriate keys.

The display is split up into a number of sections. A dozen control icons occupy the bottom left hand quarter of the screen. A window at the bottom right gives a detailed view from above of the section of maze occupied by the character currently controlled. A wider view of the maze is given in the top right hand map window: a green square identifies the moving character; corridors are indicated by black areas, and walls or obstructions are shown in a light blue.

Selection of the multiple arrow icon allows you to move up, down, left and right depending on your position in the maze. Other icons allow you to pick up an object, take a drink (which counters the energy sapping chemical residue), and unlock doors - providing you have the appropriately coloured key. There are also pause and quit options. The first icon however, makes it possible to select any of the seven available Equadroids and they can be identified by name when the face icon is accessed.

A multi-coloured bar across the centre of the screen indicates a character's strength, and a variety of windows display the current mode, score, and the number of survivors still in the maze. Scrolling text messages appear on a horizontal window.

So, get your team together and get to work. Strategy and the coordination of the Equadroids is all important. Twenty-six people are in need of treatment and are relying on you to save them from the deadly toxic gas!

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q up, A down, N left, M right, 0 fire
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: fair response times, but the fire button is too far from the rest of the controls
Use of colour good, lots used
Graphics: very jerky and hard to follow, but with nice characters
Sound: spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: very jerky scrolling over a fairly large maze area

Oh no! After Molecule Man and Universal Hero, I got the idea that MASTERTRONIC had changed their tune, and started producing good games. Why then, do they bung out a game like Octagon Squad? One of the game's worst features is the traditional MASTERTRONIC instructions, or lack of them. If more had been explained about the game, then maybe it would have been more enjoyable, but as it stands, it is very hard to get into, and even harder to play well. Though original to an extent, very little about Octagon Squad sticks in the mind, apart from its distinct lack of playability and addictivity. Even for £1.99, Octagon Squad is one game that everyone who likes good games should keep well clear of.

Remember in the good 'ole days when people could write? Well, those days have been forgotten by the folks at MASTERTRONIC - I can't remember the last time they gave some decent instructions. I'm sure that the game has some good bits in it somewhere, but whether or not you'll play that far is a different matter altogether. The game seems to be a classic 'I wonder if that will work,' or 'Well.... what do I do now?' game. The graphics are very mixed, with a good character set and border graphics, but the maze and play area are very basically designed. Once you realise that you can actually do things in this game then it urges you for another go - keep at it and you will be rewarded.

I'm sure that I'd find this one immensely playable if I knew how to play it, but as it suffers from the inevitable MASTERTRONIC 50 word scenario-come-instructions, there isn't really much to go on. It all seems very complicated, so getting into it would probably take ages and require a fair amount of patience. The graphics used are colourful and large but they are not animated at all well and the 'microscreen' scrolls diabolically. The sound consists only of spot effects. There is no tune, which is a shame as it would have added to the atmosphere a little. After the initial confusion of playing this game had subsided somewhat, I found myself quite enjoying it. If you like a challenge (and believe me, working out how to play this one is) go out and give it a try.

Mastertronic
£1.99

Giddum-up head'em-out diddly dum diddly dee Rawhide! Howdy, yawl! This is yer extra-terrestrial cowpoke hyar. This hyar is the game where yoo haf to herd them sub-culture creatures through the maze back into their pens, the little critters! Ter do this you have the haylp of yer trusty alien desperados, whom you can control from your wrist terminal. You simply moooove (chortle) your accomplices so they block the passageways, gradually cutting down the amount of places they can roam. (Oh gif me a home, where the alien subcultures roam...)

Ahem! The games controls are all alien icons, and you view the world through a little window to the bottom right of the screen. You can see a short range scan of the immediate area in the little scanner window up top. There is a scrolling status window in the centre where your computer control shows you messages about your mode or state of mind and so on.

As a game it reminds this humble cowpoke of another arcade adventure using similar techniques which I wont mention... oh, alright, Shadowfire. But in spite of this, it manages to be a real thigh-slapper. Considering how cheap it is, the graphics are very swish, and the gameplay is really quite interesting. The sub-culture creatures are well weird, a bit like enormous flies. You'll need a Vapona the size of a canoe! I think it's a great game. Get it!

Label: Mastertronic
Author: Geoff Foley
Price: £1.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Octagon Squad is complicated. It uses icons - the user friendly front end system of graphic images that nearly always makes things very, very confusing. There is an additional problem with Octagon Squad - the instructions were written by a minimalist of some sort. Either that or someone who couldn't understand the game either.

In fact, there are instructions, they crop up at the beginning of the game, although you have to wait for them and they reveal just what each icon is supposed to indicate, this or squinting at the cover pics will save you around three hours of frustration. Handy tip eh?

After much fiddling I realised that Octagon Squad is essentially an exercise in map making, and coordinating several things at once.

The plot involves getting survivors out of a reactor maze via a teleport fence. This involves both finding the survivors and finding your way out of the maze. This is even more difficult than it sounds. You must also block off the exits to the maze using a series of tables which again, you have to find.

Sections of the maze are blocked by doors, you must find a key in the matching colour to open them. Gradually the energy of each of the members of your team is dissipated from much wandering around the maze - chemical residue according to the blurb. Restore energy by finding drinking fountains.

Using the tables to block off the exit revels another aspect to the strategic element of the game - it is quite possible to block your escape route - there is a way of getting past your own blocks but it costs points and makes you feel stupid.

The icons are confusing, the maze appears both as a simple overall layout and as a close-up detail of your current location. Either way it isn't much to write home about, but at least the scrolling is smooth.

Octagon Squad gets a lot of credit for being original but not much for anything else. I found that the icons and instructions conspired to confuse rather than explain and make things clearer. Those who enjoy having their brain addled may find more in it.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Mastertronic
PRICE: £1.99

Right! Get fell in you 'orrible little droids! And you! Get your capacitor polished! Now, listen carefully 'cos I'm only going to tell you this once. There's been an unprovoked chemical attack on one of our planets. The Octagon Squad - that's you stupid! - have been chosen to go in and get out the survivors...

The idea is to move your team around the complex, blocking off exits and entrances to prevent the alien life forms from taking over.

Octagon Squad is a competent strategy game - but it really needs a bit more explanation to help out the first time player.

Spectrum
Mastertronic
Arcade Adventure
£1.99

Spectrum owners who wish they owned an Amiga will immediately be endeared to Octagon Squad because of the complicated use of icons to control most aspects of the game.

After a heavy chemical warfare attack, planet 54.7 is in dire need of some help which you are expected to give. Using a heavy dose of strategy, together with an arcade adventure feel, Octagon Squad manages to involve the player at once, although some of the icon uses are less than obvious.

Graphically, it is good though not remarkable. It is left to the game, rather than its presentation, to sell it.

Mastertronic
£1.99

This is one of those games that does not fit cosily into any of the usual categories applied to games. Mastertronic themselves describe it as on "icon driven arcade adventure" which just about covers all the available options.

However, to narrow it down a little, it is a maze game with strategy and adventure elements. I suppose that it one was being generous, the rather primitive moving graphics (I draw the line at calling it animation) would quality it in the "arcade" section.

If up to now I sound a little less than enthralled with the game please do not be misled, it is a good program of its type and slowly grows on you. But first you have to overcome the cryptic and limited instructions, then get to grips with the screen display and icon system, then sort out who is who and what you are trying to do and how to do it.

After that it is a straightforward seek, collect and survive exercise.

Taking this program a step of a time pays off, I rushed straight from the menu to the game and missed some further instructions that are displayed automatically if you wait - they helped a little.

The main screen is bright and colourful, action is controlled by either live keys or joystick and is mastered after a bit of trial and error. The lower half containing a panel of twelve usable icons and three non usable ones and on the right a birds eye view of your character in the maze. At the top is a mini map and set of info windows.

You control a commander character and eight droids, one at a time by using the icon selection routine and you move them around in a reactor maze to rescue 26 survivors of a heavy chem attack.

One of those games where patience and persistence is required to get the most from it, for the price and for fans of this kind of game I recommend it.