Producer: Quicksilva/Salamander
Memory Required: 48K
Recommended Retail Price: £6.95
Language: machine code
Author: Jeff Minter

Jeff Minter's second offering via the Game Lords was generally thought to be somewhat better than Gridrunner. One of our reviewers disliked it, but the other two considered it to be a reasonably playable game. The title could be misleading in that it sounds like another grid or light cycle type game, but in fact it is a painter type.

THIS IS WHAT YOU DO

Traxx presents you with 30 boxes, five high by six wide, with wide tracks between each. At the base of the bottom centre box the track is painted purple with a little green cursor, which is you. As you move the cursor from the purple colouring and onto 'unpainted' track, the cursor drags the colour behind it. As in most painter games there are a number of pursuers darting about at random. It all seems quite straightforward until, with an imaginatively elastic snapping sound, the painted bit shoots back to where you picked it up like a rubber band.

After a few abortive efforts you realise that you are only able to paint as far as three sides of a box at a time. Surrounding a box correctly rewards you with a little bleep and you are free to drag the paint out around another box.

There are nine skill levels and nine speeds in a flexible combination; you can have between one and nine pursuers on any of the speed levels. Starting with one and one, If you clear the screen the next level will give you two and two. These can all be selected by a neat key press type menu. Alternatively a two player game option is offered.

GENERAL

There are no instructions in the inlay card, but all the necessary detail are well presented in the program. The keyboard positions are sensibly placed; Q/A = up/down and I/P = left/right. In the two-player game the cursor colour changes between players and the scores shown.

COMMENT

Keyboard positions: easy to use and sensibly placed
Joystick options: AGF, Protek, but it was felt by all three reviewers that the keyboard was actually easier to use for control
Keyboard play: difficult to control well
Use of colour: average
Graphics: good
Sound: reasonable
Skill levels: nine
Lives: three

The graphics are good quality, with smooth movement, but the game is very difficult to control. It's too easy to overshoot a junction instead of turning off. If you over run the end of a block you cannot turn back and paint it in. This makes the game difficult in a silly sort of way.

I liked the selection of speed factors etc, by holding down the Z, X, C keys and releasing them when the desired number is displayed.

Simple in outline, Traxx is nevertheless a game of some skill and nerves, especially when there are four or five pursuers darting about.

There's a touch of the pacman in it. If you join up the four corner boxes, you're given 10 seconds to eat the chasers.

I thought it was well designed, using a well-tried format, but with no real innovation of its own.

Another conceptually simple game is Traxx, from Quicksilva. It opens with a large yellow grid consisting of 30 squares, and in essence it's similar to the hoary old children's pencil and paper game of 'dots', where the idea is to join the points up into squares. The game starts with one side of one square coloured red, and your spaceship (what else?) in the red sector. From then on you must move around, colouring as many squares as you can. But be warned, you are being pursued, although exactly how many enemies and at what speed they chase is entirely up to you. Choosing the fastest speed with the maximum number of pursuers (nine) makes for a near impossible task, although as usual it's easier with a joystick.

Producer: Quicksilva, 48K
£5.95
Author Jeff Minter

The twist with this painter is that the paint is elastic - it only stretches round three sides of the numerous squares. Fortunately the base of one square is already painted when you start Nine levels. A reasonable game. See review in main section.

Producer: Quicksilva, 48K
£6.95 (1)
Author: Jeff Minter/Salamander

Produced by Salamander for Quicksilva, Traxx is basically a 'painter' game with an ingenious difference. You have a grid of boxes, 30 in all, and the base of the bottom centre box is already painted purple. You're a little green cursor, and as you move onto unpainted track it turns purple behind you. The object is to paint all the track, but the difference is that the paint is elastic - it won't stretch further than 3 sides of a box, so each box must be completed before moving onto the next. There's a chaser, of course, as many as 9 depending on the skill level, and 9 playing speeds. Sensible control keys, joystick: Protek or AGF. Mixed views with the main criticism being that it was difficult to control in a silly rather than exciting way, it being too easy to overshoot a turning. If you do so the elastic paint zips back and you have to start again. Fair value for money, CRASH rating 61% M/C.

Producer: Quicksilva, 48K
£6.95 (1)
Author: Jeff Minter/Salamander

Producer by Salamander for Quicksilva, Traxx is basically a 'painter' game with an ingenious difference. You have a grid of boxes, 30 in all, and the base of the bottom centre box is already painted purple. You're a little green cursor, and as you move onto unpainted track it turns purple behind you. The object is to paint all the track, but the difference is that the paint is elastic - it won't stretch further than 3 sides of a box, so each box must be completed before moving onto the next. There's a chaser, of course, as many as 9 depending on the skill level, and 9 playing speeds. Sensible control keys, joystick: Protek or AGF. Mixed views with the main criticism being that it was difficult to control in a silly rather than exciting way, it being too easy to overshoot a turning. If you do so the elastic paint zips back and you have to start again. Fair value for money, CRASH rating 61% M/C.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: AGF, Optional
CATEGORY: Arcade
SUPPLIER: Salamander
PRICE: £6.95

On the screen is a grid of rectangles, and your aim is to move a space-ship around it.

Every time you complete four sides of a rectangle, it changes colour, and you have to change the whole of the grid.

Two things make this difficult. One is that it's quite hard to get the space-ship to stop exactly at an intersection - and if you overshoot you have to start again. The other is, you're being chased by bugs.

Although the idea is extremely simple, this game - like Demon Decorator - is surprisingly addictive. As you complete more and more of the grid, it becomes progressively easier to complete new boxes.

Luring you on is the knowledge that if you reach the four corners of the grid you can turn tables on the bugs and eat them.

Your progress is marked by a red trace, which infuriatingly disappears every time you overshoot an intersection and have to reverse.

In all, a thoroughly enjoyable game - but for one that's so simple, I think it's overpriced.