Producer: Mastertronic
Retail Price: £2.99
Author: P Hargreaves

The Wanglers are very antischool. In fact they're so against the system that they are campaigning for less lessons and more free time. However, the Emperor takes a very dim view of this, and has taken serious steps to cut down on this type of insubordination by arresting Brains, the Wangler's leader. Poor old Brains has been locked up in Terminus, the most impregnable prison in the galaxy.

Brains' colleagues decide that he must be rescued from the prison so that their quest can continue. They set out for the prison in order to help their friend.

There are tour friends altogether and each one has his own special talent which he can put to good use in attempting to release their leader. Each of them has a protective suit which shields them from the force-fields and other perils which await them. However, these only work if their batteries are fully charged. The energy level for each character's suit is shown at the top of the main screen. The control panel also shows how much thrust energy and lasers they have left. When any of these levels reach zero, then that particular character perishes, and the others have to carry on without him.

Mobod and Kann move by flying. However, once their thrust energy drops off, they have to find somewhere to recharge before they can become airborne again. Magno is a cat burglar, although he doesn't look like one. His main talent is being able to stick to ceilings in order to avoid traps. Spex does possess legs, but he prefers to bounce everywhere for some odd reason. You can only control one of these characters at a time, but they can be called into action at any time as long as you're on a teleport pad.

COMMENTS

Control keys: different for each character. Mobod and Xann: Q fly up, M laser fire, O left, P right. Magna: Q fly up, M laser fire, O left, P right, A detach. Spex: Q increase bounce. A decrease bounce, O left, P right. M fire
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: a riot of colour
Graphics: detailed
Sound: a few spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: 512

The game is very similar to Tantalus but it isn't really as playable or as addictive, as it takes a long time to get into. Graphically I can see a lot of people really hating this as there is almost too much colour, I like it as there isn't any colour clash and there is a lot of detail. The sound is a bit on the lame side, no tunes and only a few spot effects. I think that this will only really appeal to Tantalus tans as it doesn't really offer much to the arcade player.

Terminus contains nothing much more than Tantalus did. The game is immediately attractive. As with Tantalus, the screen is jam packed with pixels, all them full of colour a detail. But the game itself doesn't have much substance. The idea of controlling different characters is nothing new in arcade adventures, but, seems to work well and is one of Terminus's good points. Terminus features some nice touches; like the dissolving walls and different bullets - but I didn't really like the game as a whole very much.

Golly! It's Tantalus with new sprites! I didn't like that program, and I don't like this. All the main characters have really awful control methods which makes the game frustrating from the very beginning. It's even more frustrating trying to work out where to go and there isn't much in the way of dues to help. The graphics are rice, but rather superficial and they don't really interact with the game in any way. If you liked Tantalus I suppose you'd like this, but personally I prefer more arcade action and more adventure in my arcade adventures.

Mastertronic
£2.99

Imagine a galaxy where all youths are forced to do endless hours of homework and where happiness is denied to all except the Emporer whose greatest joy is to deny pleasure to anyone still a teenager. Sounds fun, doesn't it? But never fear, 'cos to the rescue come the Wranglers, intent on wangling time off for the hard-done-by schoolies - a gang of anarchic teenagers deactivating school computers all over the cosmos. (Well, they're probably BBC's anyway.) Not surprisingly, their leader, Brains, has been locked away on Terminus, the prison planet. Wouldn't you want to rescue such a hero?

You control Mobod, Xann, Magno and Spex, the four would-be rescuers of Brains. The first two move around the multiple screens by flying. Magno clings to ceilings which makes him good for avoiding horizontal traps, while Spex moves by bouncing about. With batteries charged and thrust up they're protected from enemies - but these run out quickly, so beware!

You can swop characters by using the teleports which also link the security zones. Key targets are the recharge units to boost batteries and the energy locks - these work like intergalactic roundabouts, giving access to various areas of the complex.

Obviously 512 screens makes the game l-o-n-g, but no great originality of thought has gone into it. And though there are four characters, only Spex is vaguely interesting, and they can never be used as a team. It's built like I cook, a bit of this, a bit of that and a lot of nothing in particular. Still, this one hardly blots Mastertronic's copy book.

Label: Mastertronic
Author: Paul Hargreaves
Price: £2.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Jim Douglas

Terminus is the latest game from those awfully nice people at Mastertronic. It is another in the try-and-find-something-in-the- maze-and-escape-with-it- before-your-energy-runs-out (phew!) series of games.

It's got a couple of things going for it. For a start, it is actually fun to play. In the game, written by Glass author Philip Hargreaves, the Chief Wangler (whatever that is!) of your colony has been captured by a horrific alien force, and taken to a huge prison complex. Being utterly bemused without their leader, the other Wanglers decide it would be a very good idea to go and rescue CW. A party of four is sent to the area with the mission of rescuing him. Will they succeed!

Fortunately, you can become whichever wangler you desire. Each has his/her/its own characteristics, advantages and disadvantages. The character names are predictably 'whacky': Spex, Mobod, Xann and Magno (not to be confused with Mango) are the names. Pick the one you feel less embarrassed controlling, off you go into the maze.

Once you find yourself in the myriad of multi-coloured rooms, it is astoundingly easy to get utterly lost. The locations are very colourful, and there is a large amount of, er, stuff to keep your interest, long after the initial thrill has gone.

To hinder your efforts further, there are a good number of stationary monsters, who are very large, and very hazardous. These beasts are virtually indestructible. However, one's blood-lust can be partially satiated by wiping-out the waves of aliens which will descend from on-high.

Essentially your wangle-choice is determined by which part of the maze you wish to explore. If one location has a large number of lava-pits, it makes the most sense to choose a character who can either fly, or will stick to the ceiling.

Once Spike (Chief Wangle) has been rescued, well, that's anybody's guess. The maze is 512 rooms in size, and so will, as they say, 'keep even the most hardened gamer guessing to the very end.' Well, I'm sure someone says it.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Mastertronic
PRICE: £2.99

Tonight there's gonna be a breakout. The Wanglers are on the loose again, determined to bust their mainman and boss out of the pen.

These villains, or heroes - depending on your viewpoint - have spread chaos throughout the galaxy with their anti-education campaign. But time ran out when the law ran in for the gang's boss, Spike.

He's now held deep within Terminus: The Prison Planet. Powerless, he languishes at the mercy of the system.

But the other Wanglers are determined to free him. Not much is known about Terminus because nobody gets out to tell. Controlling the four Wanglers you must enter the vast maze of Terminus, explore, avoid or kill the many guards and hopefully free the boss.

The four Wanglers all have different abilities which can be used in different parts of the prison complex.

Mobod and Xann: These move by flying. Once their thrust/energy drops off, they get grounded until they can recharge. The indicators are at the top centre of the screen, under their name. As with all four Wanglers their suits protect them from the energy fields and hostile objects as long as the batteries are charged.

Magno: An expert cat burglar who can hang from the ceiling, handy for getting him past most traps, as long as there is a ceiling to cling to.

Spex: He can walk around, but prefers to bounce everywhere, steering around in the air as he does so. To get him to climb vertical shafts is difficult at first, but once you get the knack this is one useful character!

Teleports link the different security zones. The main system will return you to Command centre, where the rest of the gang wait.

There are recharge units throughout the complex which replace lost energy in the Wangler suit batteries, if you can find them.

There are energy locks restricting movement around the complex. They are controlled by computer activators which look like huge TV sets. At the left side of the screen is a platform. Standing on it will turn the machine on selecting one of four possible doors. Leave the platform when the arrow on the screen points to the one you want open. To the right is the teleport receiver. Stand on it to "login" your position.

Your scanner has a range of 1/16th the width of the prison cells and 1/32 of the height. At any one time, therefore you can only see 1/512th of the entire complex.

Terminus is a vast, sprawling game. At £2.99, you can't fault it.

Spectrum
Mastertronic
Arcade Adventure
£2.99

Mastertronic has an uncanny knack of releasing excellent games very quietly. Of the last three or four games from Mastertronic, this rates as the best. Released on the MAD label, it is an arcade adventure which achieves something many full-price games cannot - playability.

Using very colourful graphics and not a little humour, the object is fairly standard - walk, fly and shoot your way through as many of the rooms as possible. Your character can be changed using a special teleporting unit and one of the characters is the cutist thing ever. If you own a Spectrum, do not miss it.