Producer: Martech
Retail Price: £7.95
Author: Softeam

Five electric pulses going under the wide-boy names of Mur, Nigel, Vince, Boris and Vince are locked behind prison doors in a five-level mazework of increasing complexity. A fellow Pulsator sets out in a rescue bid.

To find his friends our bulbous hero must navigate his way through a warren of angular pathways. Some are barred by numbered gates of six different types, which are opened and closed by passing over similarly-numbered activating sensors.

The pathways are contained within 49 flick screens; the position of the Pulsator is given at the bottom right of the screen. Transporter blocks help our hero along, moving him to different areas of the maze.

But it's not just everyday pulsating. The mazeways contain lethal electrical pads and single direction passages, patrolled by opposing pulsators who become increasingly intelligent with each level.

A gate pulse, when touched, reverses the status of every gate on a level and then self-destructs to prevent Pulsator changing them back; killer pulses can take one of his six lives, and others drain power, though this can be replenished by collecting oil cans; others simply block passageways.

But our globular hero packs a pistol with which he can destroy his attackers. Some of them can temporarily disarm his weapon, though, and indestructible 'nutters' retaliate viciously if he fires on them. Killing enemies and collecting objects increases Pulsator's score.

Contact with a shield pulsator provides additional protection for 30 seconds - repelling attack and killing enemies if they touch it. A thief pulsator takes everything the hero carries.

To release the imprisoned pulses, the object of Pulsator, the eponymous electric adventurer must find keys that fit their initialled prison doors - and release one on each level before the next can be reached.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z/X left/right, K/M up/down, SPACE to fire
Joystick: Kempston. Interface 2
Use of colour: good variety, and clear
Graphics: simply-defined shapes, good ball movement
Sound: limited spot FX
Skill levels: one
Screens: 245

Pulsator looks poor, certainly not the stuff that great games are made of. But it's a novel, very playable maze variant. The gates that give and take keys depending on whether you have one when you go through them are great. It can be very frustrating to get to a new part of the game only to find that you've got the correct key to proceed and rescue the pulses. The mazes are big enough to make mapping worthwhile; make a map as you go, because it's easy to forget where you are and where you're headed. £7.95 is a bit steep, but if you enjoy fiendish maze games then bear Pulsator in mind.
ROBIN

Well, Pulsator is not the most awe-inspiring game I've ever played. The graphics are hardly special, and there's not much variation in the gameplay. It's not actually FLAWED, but it's nothing new.
MIKE

This one didn't do much for me, I'm afraid. It's not a bad game - the graphics are quite smooth, the little ball bounces round the screen in a very convincing way - but I can't help feeling that it's an attempted imitation of Paradroid. Still, there are some good ideas, such as door mechanisms activated by sensors arid besides which can help you. But Pulsator just didn't hold my interest for very long.
MARK

Martech
£7.95

Absolutely no comment on the title, because I'm in enough trouble with she-who-must-be-obeyed (Do they mean me? Ed), who seems a mite jealous about my new all over holiday tan. But the is a game to get you pulsing, pounding... throbbing even. And what's more, it's not bad.

Seems like after the shoot 'em up revival it's time for the return of the maze game, but no simple ghost gobbling. This is one of the mega-big mazes with all sorts of nasty transport devices, one way gates, keys and the like, made all the more difficult by the way the screens flip. Until you get down to some serious mappinq you're likely to go round and round in circles without any real clue where you are.

I'm a bit rusty on the plot because our super deluxe preview copy escaped from the Martech maze with little more than a list of its sprites. However, it doesn't take too much up top to deduce that you have to rescue live Pulsys, which are locked up in the complex (Good thing, because you've not got too much up top! Ed).

Handling your Pulsator isn't too difficult, though once you've started it on a course it continues until it runs into a wall, or a baddie - whichever conies first. The baddies tend to sap your strength, in the time honoured fashion of all computer game baddies.

But taking that baddie recognition course may not be a bad idea, because some of them have special powers. There's the fiend who blocks a path. You can charge him, destroying him but losing a life, or you can seek a longer, potentially more dangerous route.

Of course, if you can find a diamond shield you're protected with the Pulsator ring of confidence for a full thirty seconds, which gives you time enough to do a lot of damage to their forces. Collect the oil cans too, and oi'l be seeing you later, because they give you more power and extra strength.

But the key features of the game are the doors (Groan). As you move around the maze you'll pass through numbered boxes. The first time through gives the relevant key, but the next encounter with such a box removes it again. You need to plan your route carefully so that you don't lose keys just before you need them.

The graphics are serviceable, though not awe inspiring. Why is it that so many Spectrum games now are based on balls? Couldn't be that a rotating sphere is easy to animate, could it? But 128K owners should hang around awhile at the start. The music may start soft but it grows into one of those speaker shakers that show offs with other machines used to use to kick sand in your rubber keyed whisperer.

My conclusion? Pulsator should please the player who ponders and produces maps. One to get your pulses pulsating!

Label: Martech
Author: Software Communications
Price: £7.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Pulsator is more than the sum of its parts. Partwise it's definitely budget stuff. Sumwise it's a very well designed game, better than the average budget, but maybe disappointing if you're expecting ultra-slick graphics.

It would have made an absolutely splendid mega-budget game. As it is - well - you'll love it if you're into puzzles.

The idea is simple. There are five mazes, created out of simple arrangements of walls. You control a blob and you're looking to escape from each maze having 'rescued' either Boris, Arfur, Nigel, Fred or George (also blobs).

To get out you need to blast a bit and collect oil cans to keep energy levels up and just travel through. Mostly, though, you have to reason your way past several logical puzzles.

The crux of Pulsator's five levels are the numbered gates.

They block off several parts of the maze. Each gate is switched on or off by a series of toggle switches of the same number scattered around the maze. This means that to get through some sections of the maze you must have passed through a toggle. Suppose, for example, you're trying to get past Gate 5. If you choose a route with two toggles on it, passing through the first opens the gate, but passing through the second close it again. It can get very complicated.

Other features of the game include roving blob baddies which are variously easy to kill or absolutely impossible. At least one section on each level presents you with a straight option of dying but clearing an obstacle (a particularly potent blob) or going the difficult route where you may either lose no lives at all or, more likely, loose very many lives indeed - in Level 1 it's a twisting a turning electrified wall.

Other stuff - transporters, a one-way section which only allows you to pass in one direction and energy draining baddies which wear you out. If you don't make a map you'll be lost.

The game is definitely pretty compulsive but even on later levels the graphics do remain rather simple - the colours change a bit though and, for what its worth, the mazes get even harder. Incidentally, the 128K version has extra sound.

I think the average Rambo or Short Circuit or Head Over Heels fan isn't going to think much of this one.

If you're into puzzles you may feel differently - it's a real challenge.

Personally, I think its a bit expensive and would have wished it had been £2.99 or so where it might have got a Classic.