Producer: Games Machine
Memory Required: 48K
Recommended Retail Price: £5.95
Language: machine code
Author: Russel Vincent

Barreldrop takes its name from what might be called the chorus line of this game. The two heroes are Gordon and Flash but there's no Ming in this epic! Gordon has blocked drainpipes, five of them in fact, and he's discovered a rather novel way of clearing them. He stands on the roof with five barrels, rolls them down the incline and tries to get them to fall down the blocked pipes. How on earth this is supposed to clear them, goodness knows!

However, it seems to do the trick. Unfortunately if he doesn't get the barrel exactly down the centre of a pipe it gets lost. Successful rolls are returned to him for another go. This is where Flash comes in. He's a dog who appears round the corner - sometimes. If he's visible and Gordon misplaces a barrel Flash will rescue it and return it up the ladder to him. Successfully clearing a screen results in another event, sometimes a riddle sometimes an arcade episode like getting Gordon safely across a floor in which some of the tiles are electrified. If you manage this, it's back to the chorus line again and more barrels to roll, more drains to be cleared.

COMMENTS

Keyboard positions: vary between sections, but generally sensible
Joystick options: none
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: very good, all colours used
Graphics: detailed, reasonably smooth
Sound: good
Screens: many
Lives: 1

I thought Barreldrop was a bit simple and boring - that was before a glass of Smirnov. The inlay only tells you that there's a surprise in store it you get five drains cleared. I was presented with a riddle which asked: What is a fourth defining measurement, an entity which never dies, but sees the end of all things? After a glass of Smirnov I realised I knew the answer (I was right too) and the next lot of drains seemed harder to clear (not just the drink!) because it's quite easy to mistime it, and damned Flash seems to appear less and less often. In fact Barreldrop is not simple and has enough bits and pieces to prevent boredom from setting in at all.

It's quite an original idea. a sort of games compendium in which nothing is exactly difficult, but there's so much of it you'll never get through. Having cleared the first screen I was asked to shoot down ten aliens with five lives in a sort of galaxian game. Neat graphics throughout. I cleared another barreldrop screen and had to walk Gordon over an electrified floor - he fried. I died. Only one life seems a little unfair. Fun though.

Good graphics, plentiful sound, loads of action. It should be a winner. I must say that I enjoyed it, but the fact that there isn't a concentrated effort on one subject may spoil the fun for the hardened arcade addict. Nevertheless, good value, fun, and a wide age group appeal.

You have to catch barrels as they drop from the top of the screen, aided only by your dog. Your name is Flash and the dog's name is Gordon - shouldn't it be the other way round?

Peter: Written in Basic, this game is slow, the graphics are unexciting and the colour is bad. It's a very tedious game and the riddles between rounds only seem to increase the tedium.

Corrie: I've seen better 16K games designed to run on old tin boxes! Well, not really - but this isn't too good.

Stewart: Having achieved success in the first game, the player must answer a riddle or get through a mini-arcade game in order to move on to the next round. But subsequent rounds don't vary, even in speed, and riddles are often repeated, even when answered correctly first time round.

Producer: Games Machine, 48K
£5.95 (1)
Author: Russell Vincent

Starring Gordon and Flash, Barreldrop is a games compendium. Gordon suffers from blocked drainpipes - at least his house does. He cures this affliction by the curious method of rolling large barrels down the sloping roof and letting them fail through the blocked pipes. He only has five barrels and it's important they fall exactly down the centre of each pipe. If they don't he loses the barrel for good. Fortunately his faithful dog Flash is on hand sometimes and if called in time, the dog will recover the barrel and return it for another go. Clearing all five pipes successfully results in another screen which may be anything from a riddle to guess to an arcade shoot em up sequence. It's quite an original idea, in which nothing is too difficult, and yet there's so much that it becomes very difficult to get through. Playable and fun, good value, no joystick options. Overall CRASH rating 65% M/C.

Producer: Games Machine, 48K
£5.95 (1)
Author: Russell Vincent

Starring Gordon and Flash, Barreldrop is a games compendium. Gordon suffers from blocked drainpipes - at least his house does. He cures this affliction by the curious method of rolling large barrels down the sloping roof and letting them fail through the blocked pipes. He only has five barrels and it's important they fall exactly down the centre of each pipe. If they don't he loses the barrel for good. Fortunately his faithful dog Flash is on hand sometimes and if called in time, the dog will recover the barrel and return it for another go. Clearing all five pipes successfully results in another screen which may be anything from a riddle to guess to an arcade shoot em up sequence. It's quite an original idea, in which nothing is too difficult, and yet there's so much that it becomes very difficult to get through. Playable and fun, good value, no joystick options. Overall CRASH rating 65% M/C.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: No
CATEGORY: Arcade
SUPPLIER: Games Machine Ltd
PRICE: £5.95

Barreldrop is, presumably, an arcade game with educational overtones - the cassette inlay shows a teacher and blackboard, and I suppose the game is designed to give very young children an idea of numbers and words. As such, it is not altogether successful.

Barreldrop features a character called Gordon and his dog, Flash (geddit?). Gordon stands on a ledge at the top of the screen and rolls barrels down the roof of his house.

Pressing SPACE at the right moment allows the barrels to drop into a set of drainpipes, numbered one to five.

At various times during the game. It is possible to discern Gordon's dog peeping out from the right-hand corner. If you realise that you are about to miss your target, pressing 'D' will send Flash scampering across the screen to retrieve the errant barrel and bring it back up the ladder for another go.

Filling all the drainpipes brings a bonus, and there are various riddles and other games included. The riddles are of the 'What has four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three at night?' variety, but there is no acknowledgment as to whether they have been answered correctly or not.

Attention to detail is not all that it should be. either. Writer Russell Vincent has included a routine to speed up the auto-repeat while playing the game, but this remains in operation even when the user is invited to type in his/her name, which means that a very light touch is needed to avoid letters repeating.

For very young children only.