Producer: Micromania
Memory Required: 16K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Dominic Wood

Micromania certainly seem to have been busy recently, and have the distinction of being the first to advertise another of their products on the loading screen of a game. It's a very good screen too, with the Pengy title to the left and an ad for Tutankhamun on the right. Will we be seeing animated 'trailers' for games coming to this screen soon?

Pengy probably needs no introduction, and the game type has certainly been well copied lately. You guide a penguin round the lonely Artic wastes, except they're not so lonely. Snow bees chase around after your penguin trying to kill him off. Protection comes in the form of being able to shove the screenful of iceblocks around, hopefully crushing a nasty in the process. Pengy can also 'electrify ' the wall of the screen, making any snow bee in contact with the wall go dizzy.

The peculiarities of each version, gives the Spectrum range its charm (a comparison soon?) Pengy's enemies in this version are less intelligent that in say, Freez' Bees, but to some extent, this makes the game more playable, since you have a better chance of getting into it. Also, when the fence is electrified, the dizzy bugs can be trundled over (effect lasts about four seconds). Another little quirk is that the last bee left on a screen becomes very cowardly and runs away, often suiciding rather than face the Wrath of Penguin (which gives bonus points). As each screen is cleared. (two bees on the first) the number of bees gets higher. As with some other versions those blocks of ice containing a bee, are a different colour for two seconds when the game starts, and after hatching, the bees are vulnerable to being trundled over for a few more seconds.

COMMENTS

Control keys: A/Z = up/down, N/M = left/right, rest of bottom row = push or melt or electrify; also cursors plus zero.
Joystick: Kempston, AGF, Protek, cursor clip ons
Keyboard play: reasonable
Colour very good
Graphics: well detailed and animated, a little jerky but nothing to complain of
Sound: good
Skill levels: progressive difficulty
Lives: 3

From the nice loading screen onwards, the graphics of Pengy are colourful and detailed and amusing. The snow bees look positively comical before they vanish, and the penguin is nicely animated. I like this sort of game, and I find this version to be the most playable that I have seen yet.

A very good use of colour, and good graphics make this version very playable. Although the nasties are not quite so devilish as I have seen in other versions, the fact that they are not makes it easier to get further, faster. As each screen goes by, the sheer numbers make the game very challenging. It seems a little peculiar that you often don't have to kill of the remaining bug, but otherwise this is a very good version, with sensible keys.

BLOCK BUSTERS - PENGO TYPE GAMES

Reviewers Chris Passey and Matthew Uffindell don their cold gear to play in the Arctic wastes...

The Pengo scenario says that a penguin in the snowy wastes must stay alive by melting ice blocks, or shunting them along to squash the snow bugs which threaten him. The frame resembles one of those small hand-held word puzzles with letters printed on small squares which may be shuffled to rearrange them. The game requires a certain amount of strategic thinking in setting up kills. You can usually 'electrify' the walls (the edge of the screen) and daze any nasties that touch it, running them down if you are able. First in the market was Blaby's Dodo and the Snow Bees by a long margin.

PENGY
Memory Required: 16K
Retail Price In £5.95

With this game, the title screen provides you with two pictures, one for the game itself and another, which is an advert for Tutankhamun - a bit like being in the cinema! On playing the game I found I had difficulty moving ice blocks with the keyboard. When I changed to my trusty Kempston I found I could by using the fire button. The game's graphics are okay but a little flickery and the sound, whilst well used, is nothing special. This game is enjoyable but I preferred Freez'Bees to it. Pengy himself seems to resemble a fat Dracula! One thing to bear in mind in discussing the merits of Pengy is that it is in 16K - the only one.
CP

The loading time (with its advertisement screen feature) is very short - great. You are a very ghostly looking penguin, out to squash spongy looking intelligent creatures - well, almost intelligent, actually they're pretty thick, but every screen completed adds another snow bee to the game. Movement of snow bees penguin and ice blocks is smooth and fast. The keys are responsive and well positioned. Each time the fence is electrified the border changes colour, so you can see that the fence is definitely electrified. There are four differently coloured ice blocks which can't be pushed together (they can't be melted) for bonus points. An average Pengo but in 16K.
MU

PENGO-TYPE GAMES COMPARISON TABLE

The two reviewers' ratings have been averaged, but despite independent assessment of the games, they were very much in agreement.

NB. Despite details printed on cassettes and in advertisements, due to an error Software Projects Push Off is not 16K but 48K. The same is true of Thrusta.

Memory: 16K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: AGF, Kempston

It is difficult being a penguin and having to push ice blocks all your life, it is even more tricky if you have to take part in a game such as Pengy, for the 16K Spectrum, and dump the blocks on top of killer bees to stay alive.

When first played, the game seems difficult and the player will not last long as the ice bees are intelligent enough to root out any penguin which treads on their turf. It is also difficult to decide whether the ice block you intend to push will slide forward or just melt. If it melts the bees, which look like Pac-Man blobs, will not he affected sufficiently to die and you could lose one of your three Lives.

The graphics are fairly simple and flicker when they move. It is difficult to decide which block of ice will move when you push and in that way the game seems to have no direction.

The difficulty of the game and the simple concept of pushing ice on to bees produces what can be described as only a mediocre game, although with a little polishing the standard could have been raised. The author has not provided on-screen instructions on how to play.

The Pengy concept may be new but the initial interest in the game soon departs. It can be obtained from Micromania, 14 Lower Hill Road, Epsom, Surrey KT19 8LT.

MACHINE: Spectrum 16/48K
CONTROL: Cursor Keys
FROM: Micromania, £5.95

The game in which you have to slide ice blocks and electrify fences to kill the snow bees. The main trouble with this version is that it uses the dreaded cursor keys. Hours of frustration guaranteed unless you have a cursor joystick