Producer: Imagine
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £3.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Frank Johnson

In line with Imagine's new policy of detailed inlay cards, comes a new super-low price. The inlay gives detailed instructions on how to play the game, as well as details on the author and his host of helpers which include some other professional musicians Imagine have hired to improve the sound on their games.

Pedro is a sad little Mexican. At least, if he's not sad, he should be. Trying to scratch a bare existence from.the dry soil is hard enough without having to cope with hordes of predators. He has a box of seeds, with which he can replace those plants eaten by the nasties, but a local tramp is likely to stroll in and take them if Pedro doesn't stop him in time and frighten him off. Actually the inlay states that Pedro has the most beautiful flower garden South of the Border, and that's what attracts all the animals to come and eat the plants.

These include ants, rabbits and cats, among others. To stop them Pedro may jump up and down on them, or he may take bricks from the pile, or compost, and block up the entrances to the garden. The game is over when all the plants have been eaten. The action is played out on a screen which suggests a 3D perspective, and this is accentuated by the fact that up and down are in reality diagonals.

COMMENTS

Control keys: left/right alternate keys bottom row, down - any key on 2nd row, up - any key on third row. Jump, pick, put - any key on top row or SPACE
Joystick: Fuller, 2 x 2, Kempston, AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: very responsive, but finicky in movement
Use of colour: average, although plenty used
Graphics: detailed, reasonably smooth
Sound; game sound, poor, tunes very good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 1

The game has many key combinations but they are poorly laid out in respect of the speed with which you have to use the pick/drop/stomp key. The graphics are detailed and reasonably smooth but oddly for Imagine, the colour looks primitive. The sound - well the tunes - are fabulous. The game is an original idea but I thought badly executed. Movement can be very tricky and unreliable, and attempting to make the game 3D is really a problem which makes movement and the game actually more difficult to play. Not my favourite Imagine game at all.

Pedro is a rather odd game from Imagine. The screen is in semi-3D perspective view, which makes Pedro move about rather oddly. The destroying of animals by stomping on them is hard due to the controls being difficult to manage. The graphics are good but not exceptional, and there are a few attribute problems with colour. This is not one of Imagine's best games, although what is poor from Imagine still rates average due to their usual high standards, which I hope aren't slipping. However, the more I played the game the better it seemed, and it did grow on me in a way.

The game has been designed to be quite hard to play, with so many animals eating the plants. Pedro can only carry one thing at a time so he must decide whether it's to be seeds to plant, bricks or compost to try and block off the garden entrances. But some animals seem to eat bricks as well. It would have been more manageable if the keys had been kinder. Placing seeds (you only have a limited number which is shown at the top of the screen) tended to be difficult because of the perspective angle chosen. Great tunes, but only average attempt overall, with rather distressing use of colour.

Protect your flower bed from invading bugs by jumping on them, or blocking their paths with compost or bricks. But if things get too bad, you can always plant more seeds.

Ian: The well-defined sprites used in this game are sometimes difficult to make out, because the choice of colour is not always suitable. However, the game is fairly fast and there's an excellent machine code tune. 4/10

Simon: The choice of colour isn't too bad, but the character movement is poor and the speed feels too slow. It gives a good impression at first, but becomes boring very quickly because although the idea is good, the execution isn't. 4/10

Jon: This is a difficult game to play in the latter stages, because it gets too fast. The best part about it is the opening tune, which is very well written. 4/10

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.50
Joystick: Fuller, Sinclair, Kempston, AGF, Protek, Arrow keys

The 3D perspective style of graphics so cleverly demonstrated in Ant Attack is bound to breed offshoots. Pedro from Imagine for the 48K Spectrum is in a similar mould, though the graphics are not so complex and the theme not so absorbing or original. The scene is a carefully-tended garden in Old Mexico where Pedro the gardener has created a fine flower garden. The quality of the blooms is such that all the animals in the area sneak into browse on them and Pedro stands guard to protect his work from their ravages.

He can choose either to jump on them with his boots or try to block their way with bricks and compost, convenient stacks of which are placed around the walled precinct. A shady tramp will appear now and then in an attempt to steal seeds from Pedro's store. He, too, has to be driven off if the garden is to be preserved intact, for Pedro can re-seed the flower beds with his stock if he can find the time.

Rats, ants, cats and stags assail poor Pedro and he must move very fast to keep his score mounting, since a clock is also ticking away the seconds. The dogs even lift their legs to the plants.

Pedro is moved by the keyboard or by a range of joystick options, though the keyboard was difficult to co-ordinate given the speed of action. The graphics are attractive but flickery at times and it will take the player a time to get used to the system of movement. The theme may not have as broad an appeal as more aggressive games but the program is of excellent quality, requiring practice and skilful handling to attain high scores.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Full, Sinc, Kemp
FROM: Imagine, £5.50

Stop the animals from eating the plants by jumping on them. Make sure the tramp doesn't steal the seeds. The same game as the Dragon version reviewed elsewhere. Surprisingly the Dragon version is better, this one being very difficult to control.

Pedro is the eponymous hero of a new game for the 48K Spectrum. To preserve his garden, he must build a wall round it, stamp out any animals which appear, plant new seeds, and scare away the tramp who tries to steal his seeds.

Finding the correct point to stamp on an animal, pick up a brick or even plant a seed is very difficult, and since so much attention must be paid to that detail, the game quickly loses its sparkle. It is from Imagine House, 5 Sir Thomas Street, Liverpool and costs £5.50.