Producer: Virgin Games
Memory Required: 48K
Recommended Retail Price: £5.95
Language: machine code compiled
Author: Keith Mitchell

Robber is subtitled, 'A 3-part criminal escapade to warn you off a lifetime of crime!' According to one of our reviewers they should have warned you off Robber. In many respects this game is a good sketch for a much better presentation at a later date.

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO

There are really three screens in this game, although the second contains four different sections. The first screen depicts a large room with two L-shaped cupboards in it. You're at the bottom right, a chess pawn shaped thing. In the two cupboards are a door key and a stethoscope. A third and vital object is the hidden safe key (why a stethoscope?) This safe key only becomes momentarily visible in the beam from the guards torch. He's at the right of screen, moving erratically up and down. If you get caught in the beam you're nicked.

Having collected the three objects you proceed to the second screen, a two-part collapsing and reappearing bridge, which you must cross without falling to your death on the spikes below. Once across, the third screen presents you with a simple maze; first section under water, infested with poisonous jelly fish (watch the falling oxygen rating), second part through a dark room where you can't see the path of the maze, and infested with man-eating birds; third part a narrow corridor with deadly bouncing balls; and lastly a maze which disappears as soon as you see it, so it must be memorised. The whole thing takes places against a timer on the safe which shuts off the whole complex, trapping you if you're not quick enough.

GENERAL

The instructions on the inlay say Z/A for up/down and Q/W for left/right. They're wrong. It's actually Z/X for left/right and K/M for up/down. Objects are collected by moving onto them. One of the reviewers noted a serious problem, not so much of crashing the program as terminally freezing it. Twice in a row it froze on hitting the Z key and had to be reloaded.

COMMENTS

Keyboard positions: sensible
Joystick options: none
Keyboard play: very slow
Use of colour: average
Graphics: fair
Sound: hardly any

Overall the graphics are very basic looking, though adequate for the idea, but they move at a very BASIC speed. In fact it's such a slow process that the game becomes frustrating and not in a good way.

An awful lot depends on luck rather than any playing skill. The collapsing bridge is very random, and the jelly fish just pop up and then disappear again, so it's luck that gets you through. Neither jelly fish nor man-eating birds pose any real danger in the sense that they go for you.

The response to pressing a key is so slow that skill plays very little part in this game. I thought the graphics were primitive and there was no sound to speak of. Surely more could have been done with 48K than this?

Although you only get one life in the first screen, once into the second and third there seems to be no limit, you can go on and on.

An original idea that involves you in stealing the loot, and avoiding the searchlight as it scans the screen.

Peter: Although this program was put together using the Softek compiler, it's still awfully slow and the graphics have taken a backward leap in time to the simple block graphics of the ZX81. It did seem that Virgin Games were improving their software selection...

Stewart: Unbelievably slow, this game is a long way behind the times graphically, and generally leaves a lot to be desired.

Corrie: Basically, very slow. Not bad overall and an original idea but frankly, a rotten presentation.

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K
£5.95 (1)
Author: Keith Mitchell

This is a 3-part game. In the first section you must cross a room to 2 Cupboards and collect a doorkey and a stethoscope. A guard moves about with a torch and you are caught if you appear in his beam. There's also a safe key hidden in the room. Getting through this dumps you onto a collapsing bridge with spikes beneath. The third part is a maze where you must swim under water, avoiding fish and get out before your oxygen runs out, then cross an invisible maze avoiding man-eating birds, get through narrow passages avoiding the bouncing balls, and lastly a maze which disappears as soon as you've seen it. Sounds exciting but it isn't. This is a good sketch for a much better game. The inlay instructions are incorrect and the game has a tendency to freeze terminally at odd times. Primitive graphics and unresponsive control don't help. Poor. CRASH rating overall 48%. Compiled M/C.

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K
£5.95 (1)
Author: Keith Mitchell

This is a 3-part game. In the first section you must cross a room to 2 Cupboards and collect a doorkey and a stethoscope. A guard moves about with a torch and you are caught if you appear in his beam. There's also a safe key hidden in the room. Getting through this dumps you onto a collapsing bridge with spikes beneath. The third part is a maze where you must swim under water, avoiding fish and get out before your oxygen runs out, then cross an invisible maze avoiding man-eating birds, get through narrow passages avoiding the bouncing balls, and lastly a maze which disappears as soon as you've seen it. Sounds exciting but it isn't. This is a good sketch for a much better game. The inlay instructions are incorrect and the game has a tendency to freeze terminally at odd times. Primitive graphics and unresponsive control don't help. Poor. CRASH rating overall 48%. Compiled M/C.