Producer: Lothlorien
Memory Required: 16K
Recommended Retail Price: £5.95
Language: machine code

Named, presumably, after a favourite hot drink, the planet Bovryll is an asylum in which you are trapped. Wave after wave of loathsome creatures will attack you, each more vicious than the last. Fortunately someone has had the foresight to provide you with a twin firing photon bolt.

The game gets off to a promising start with an exquisitely animated figure dancing on the titles while the computer waits for you to select a level. Once this has been done the planet Bovryll materialises on the screen. Well, it is an asylum of course, which would explain why it resembles a dense but open plan maze. You're at the bottom. One critic has said that he didn't recognise 'himself' but recognition comes as soon as you fire your twin photon bolt.

You may zip about the maze if you like. All the loathsome creatures do, and they are beautifully animated. But eventually they start to file down to the left hand bottom corner (if you stay down there) and sadly follow the same route through the maze to be shot. However, as they get shot, the next one speeds up and you have to be very fast to survive. As the game proceeds creatures described as 'saucerous guards' attack. They nip about very quickly and fire at you. Shooting ten of these earns an extra life.

GENERAL

The packaging is unpretentious and the presentation of the on screen instructions is very good.

Control keys are Q/Z = up/down, I/P = left/right. Fire is 0 and K allows user-defined keys, which means this could be set up easily for Kempston, AGF or Protek interfaces.

COMMENTS

Keyboard positions: good as set but redefinable
Joystick options: none offered
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: muted, but relies on gem-like sprites
Graphics: detailed and excellent
Sound:good
Skill levels: three
Lives: five

The ability to redefine the control keys is a powerful facility. In any event, the keyboard control is very responsive. Graphics are detailed and the sound effects are good.

The animation of the creatures is fantastic, about the best ever. The game is fun to play and very fast. It seems a pity, though, that the creatures are so easily waylaid by waiting at some corner in the right position and shooting them like cowboys coming out of a burning building. Still, I found it enjoyable to play, but perhaps not entirely as addictive as I first thought.

A very playable game with smooth graphics, and it can get very, very fast in play, and highly addictive.

Producer: MC Lothlorien, 16K
£5.95 (1)

A very fast shoot em up game in which the maze is not a central problem, but the infestation of beautifully animated creatures are. It's supposed to be an asylum planet and you're the only sane inmate (so you think)! Equipped with your twin-firing photon bolt, its quite a task to keep the ravening monsters at bay. They move faster and faster as they dash at you and there are also 'saucerous guards' nipping about. firing at your. The one drawback, perhaps, is that the creatures take a very predictable path towards you, but its still all extemely fast. Could have had more variation to heighten addictivity. User-defined control keys, so AGF or Protek joysticks are usable, pretty good value for money and an overall CRASH rating of 78% M/C.

Producer: MC Lothlorien, 16K
£5.95 (1)

A very fast shoot em up game in which the maze is not a central problem, but the infestation of beautifully animated creatures are. It's supposed to be an asylum planet and you're the only sane inmate (so you think)! Equipped with your twin-firing photon bolt, its quite a task to keep the ravening monsters at bay. They move faster and faster as they dash at you and there are also 'saucerous guards' nipping about. firing at your. The one drawback, perhaps, is that the creatures take a very predictable path towards you, but its still all extemely fast. Could have had more variation to heighten addictivity. User-defined control keys, so AGF or Protek joysticks are usable, pretty good value for money and an overall CRASH rating of 78% M/C.