Producer: Silversoft
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Patrick Richmond

Working for the Acme Robot Manufacturing Co. is not an easy business when the robots keep running riot. You're in the control room one day when you notice the robots are out and playing dangerously. The only answer is to send out the Bomber!

Silversoft have taken a well worn theme, turned it on its head, and come out with a new type of game. For want of a better comparison this is a backward 'Pac Man' type game. Instead of eating dots, here you lay them.

The screen represents the factory corridors, a reasonably complex maze. When the game starts the bomber, 'you', must move round the corridors laying mines. To complete the screen every corridor must be laid. This tempts the king robot out of his central lair, so that you can get in and progress to the next level. What you're up against is a handful of different robots (ghosts backwards?) which start to materialise in the four corners, until the screen is running with them. Fortunately there is also a power mite, which replenishes your rapidly fading supply when you run over it. As soon as you do, another materialises somewhere else. Another unpleasant problem is that all round the central enclosure the corridors are cut off by several sliding doors which open and close. Not only does this hinder your mine-laying program, it also can get you nastily trapped if you're not careful.

COMMENTS

Control keys: very good, L/K left/right, K/M up/down
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive
Colour good
Graphics: good
Sound: continuous, average
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: multiple

An original idea, and a good one at that. A bit slow at first, but as the game progresses the action gets livelier. Quite tense, when having laid the last mine, you have only 30 seconds to get into the control room once the king robot is out.

It's similarity to 'Pac Man' is a bit off-putting at first, but I warmed quite rapidly to this game after 10 minutes playing. Although it isn't exactly fast, it turns out to be quite demanding on the player. Perhaps better suited to younger players than hardened addicts, but actually quite addictive anyway. Nice colours and amusingly animated characters.

A good use of colour and nice, smooth graphics combined with the continuous sound, make this into a good-average game. An advance on 'Pac Man', it is one of those maze games that will probably appeal to many. I didn't find it all that addictive, although very playable after a few minutes. The opening and shutting doors, adds a touch of drama too, especially as it can put you In a tight spot, and frustratingly cut you off at the last second from your power mite! Not bad at all.

Rioting robots run amok in this maze game, and your job is to stop them as quickly as possible by carefully controlling your robot to plant bombs that will destroy the mutinous menaces.

Tony: This is essentially a Pacman game in reverse. Instead of eating dots, the player has to lay them. The theme is original and highly addictive, but in play, feels a little too slow for comfort, and the keys aren't too responsive. 7/10

Mark: The player's robot is very controllable, and the first level starts at a reasonable speed - which increases with successive levels. With superb graphics and colour, this must surely be the best Pacman game ever. 8/10

John: Everything involved in this game is excellent, from the impressive on-screen scoring to the cassette inlay. This is undoubtedly Silversoft's best. 9/10

Producer: Silversoft, 48K
£5.95 (2)
Author: Patrick Richmond

In a sense this is the opposite of a 'Pac Man' game in as much as you are laying dots in the maze instead of gobbling them up. The story is that the robots have run amok in the corridors of the Acme Robot Manufacturing Co and you must guide the robot bomber through the maze, laying mines. The amokful robots materialise in the four corners, becoming more numerous the longer you take to accomplish your mission - they must be avoided at all costs of course. Your power supply drains rapidly, but there are power mites also materialising which replenish your supply if they are run over. The object is to lay mines in every corridor and entice the king robot out of the central control room so you can get in. An additional problem is that some corridors are equipped with sliding doors which keep shutting. The game has attractive graphics and manages to be surprisingly addictive in play. It's given an old format a new lease of life. Good control keys, joystick: Kemston, above average, overall CRASH rating 70% m/c.

ROBOTS ARE REVOLTING

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Kempston

Robot Riot from Silversoft centres on a revolt of the robots in which the only way to regain control of the building is to lay bombs over the entire floor area and thus force the King robot to escape from his central control room. That is not the end, however, as it will escape only to another floor, where you must start laying bombs again.

Anyone who has played Pac-man or any of its many derivatives will be familiar with this game, where the main difference from the original is that instead of eating dots you are laying a trail of them.

You lose a life whenever you run out of power but in yet another familiar touch the regular consumption of power mites will prevent the disaster.

One interesting feature is the way the game starts with an introduction to the various robots, with details of their speed, intelligence and destructive powers. Apart from that, Robot Riot can in no way claim originality but it manages to be absorbing and addictive, especially if you enjoy maze scenarios, and the robot graphics are lively.

Experienced players may find it slow and it is a pity that each time you lose a Life you have to return to the start, instead of continuing from where you left off, making the game more frustrating than it need be.

IT'S MINE - MINE I SAY!

MAKER: Silversoft
MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £5.95

Robot Riot is Pac Man in reverse.

The object of the game is to lay mines along the corridors of a robot factory, where the robots are running amok and the 'King Robot' has taken over the control room, not only on your floor but throughout the whole building. Once the total floor area has been mined, the King Robot will try to escape by leaving the control room and you must enter the control room. This ensures that all robots are destroyed on the floor and that you can travel to the next.

Sounds easy? Well, you do have to keep up your energy levels by collecting power mites which are also travelling around the corridors, and different types of robots will either paralyse or kill you if contact is made and more of them appear as time goes on.

As often is the case, the simple games are the best and this game will get the adrenalin flowing and give you plenty of entertainment.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: Kempston, Optional
CATEGORY: Arcade
SUPPLIER: Silversoft
PRICE: £5.95

Pac-Man variant in which you lay down bombs in a maze while being chased by robots. Perfectly good fun - unless you already have one of the other 2 million Pac-Mans for the Spectrum.