MOUNTING EXCITEMENT IN MINE RESCUE

It is difficult to see why Visions set its Pitman Seven, an arcade game for the 48K Spectrum, in a South African mine, as that can scarcely count as a major selling point.

Pitman Seven promises plenty of action and excitement. Two teams of seven men are trapped underground and your job is to bring each one to the surface, despite a series of falling rocks which pursue the men along the shafts. You can climb ladders or drop through trapdoors and if you are lucky you might even be able to avoid the boulders by jumping over them.

If you manage to get your men to the top and to safety, you go to the next level, where waves of gas create an additional hazard.

The object is to collect a series of strategically-placed suits to protect yourself as you try to escape.

The concept of the game is yet another variation on the maze-with-hazards theme but the pace of the action is well-judged and the graphics are very professional.

The computer also offers some hard-hitting comments about your performance at the end of each mission.

Pitman Seven is available from Visions Software Factory, 1 Felgate Mews, Studland Street, London W6 9JT and costs £6.95.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: No
CATEGORY: Arcade
SUPPLIER: Visions
PRICE: £6.95

The setting is a South African mine - you have to reach the surface avoiding boulders and gas clouds by darting down ladders or jumping on to beams.

MEMORY REQUIRED: 48K

Pitman 7 is a new game a recently-formed company, Visions.

Two teams of seven men are trapped on the fifth level of an underground mine. Your task is to guide each one to the surface through the many tunnels and shafts. Just to make things a little more interesting, rocks are cascading towards you at a frightening velocity. There are a number of ways to avoid these: to jump over them, go through a hatchway onto another level or jump and hang on to bar above parts of the tunnels. If this is not enough, it is then necessary to guide the other team through tunnels filling with a poisonous gas. Gas suits are available but getting them can be a problem.

Though the scenario may be different, the screen display and basics of the game are the same as 'Donkey Kong', etc. Fortunately, a number of additions have been made to make it rather more varied and exciting game than 'Donkey Kong' itself. The quality of graphics is quite good, though a little jerky and not as detailed as some of the other games I have seen.

In many ways, it comes as an advanced version of 'Donkey Kong' which will appeal to 'Donkey Kong' addicts, but with a new story line, which gives is new life.

Pitman Seven must rate as one of the better copies of arcade games. Fortunately, the extended scenario puts it out as a great game in its own right, and a very good one at that!

48K Spectrum
£5.95
Visions

Visions is new on the software scene and is keen to emphasise that its approach is equally fresh. It is hard to assess whether the best of its first three releases, set in a disaster stricken goldmine in South Africa, means to assert the new approach by drawing attention to the plight of low waged blacks, or by departing from the world wide condemnation of those who profit from their fate.

Your mission is to bring two teams of seven trapped miners from level five of the mine to the surface. The game is basically a Kong format once you get past the spectacular introductory graphic which so unfortunately sets the scene in its controversial location.

Periodically boulders roll down from the surface - you can avoid them by jumping over them or leaping through the trap doors or climbing up ladders to another level.

Another danger is presented by pockets of deadly inert gas. You can avoid them by putting on gas-suits, but this manoeuvre brings up to eight the number of keys you have to be able to use. This certainly is a departure from the accepted practice. If you like the idea of this kind of multiplicity of controls, fine, bu perhaps the work should be on the part of the programmer rather than the user.