Producer: Firebird
Retail Price: £1.99
Author: Jeffery Bond

On the planet Neptune, many years into the future, a fierce battle of wits is being fought. Neptune has now been colonised and a rather largish space station built to house its immigrants.

However, nasty aliens are determined to put a spanner in the works. For some reason best known to themselves they have planted a huge bomb somewhere on the station as an act of gratuitous interstellar terrorism. This bomb is so massively big that if it explodes it will not only destroy the space station but will also turn the planet Neptune into mere wisps of hydrogen and ozone as its particles are spread across the cosmos.

This is all a bit worrying. The inhabitants of the space station have been evacuated to a nearby asteroid arid now it's just a waiting game. Gone are the days when highly skilled human bomb disposal experts were sent to risk their lives. Nowadays everything's automated. Arnold (which is a very nice name for a robot) is a mechanical disposal droid which is specially programmed to disassemble dangerous bombs. This droid has been sent into the space station on Neptune to locate and defuse the bomb before it's too late. However, it's still up to you to control Arnold and guide him through the corridors and rooms of the station in the quest for the bomb.

Those interfering aliens have set a timer on the bomb. You have around 999 seconds in which to locate the bomb and render it harmless. Not content with just sitting back and waiting for the big bang, the aliens have also sent in their own saboteurs who will do their utmost to get in the way of your efforts. These irritating creatures will sap your droid's energy if they get too close. They can be destroyed by Arnold but will re-materialise after a short time to renew their attacks.

Arnold has been equipped with a nifty laser which makes short work of any marauding nasty. However, the droid has only a limited amount of power so indiscriminate blasting will wear the laser out quite quickly. The droid also has a certain amount of energy which it uses to move around the space station. Each time one the of the nasties gets too close to Arnold, some of this energy is lost. This is represented by a blue wavy line at the edge of the screen. Once all four lives have gone the game is over and you can enjoy the planet's destruction from the safety of the control room.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q forwards, O turn anti-clockwise, turn clockwise, A fire, Z pick-up, X select object, C activate object
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor
Keyboard play: quite responsive and easier than joystick
Use of colour: monochrome
Graphics: familiar 3D
Sound: spot effects
Skill levels: one
Screens: Around 128 (according to FIREBIRD!)

FIREBIRD has started to produce some very good budget software lately, some of which would probably sell very well with an £8.00 price tag. Bombscare is one of these. Graphically this doesn't offer anything new or particularly stunning - Filmation is getting a little overused and worn around the edges now - but there is a lot of nice detail and your character moves around the various screens smoothly. Sound is disappointing as there are few effects and no tunes. The game plays quickly but controlling your 'dustbin' is a little tricky so you use up a lot of energy crashing into nasties that you can't avoid. Not a bad game, but it lacks a little in playability and addictiveness.

Will software houses never tire of making Filmation-style 3D games? I can tire of reviewing them, that's for sure. Bombscare isn't particularly bad, but the game just has that'seen it all before' feel to it. The graphics, yes, are very pretty, it's very similar to all its predecessors. Playability-wise, Bombscare is just about up to standard, and it's fairly addictive, too, with some very nice effects, like the planet explosions. Good value for money, but l didn't go ape over it, and I don't think most other people will either.

Surprise, surprise! Another budget, monochrome, arcade adventure. I found Bombscare very easy to get into and good fun to play for the first few goes, but it doesn't contain anything that will make you play it again. The graphics are, as all monochrome games should be, very pretty and detailed, but, alas, there is no sound worth mentioning. There are a couple of nice touches at the end of the game: when you die a little broom comes on the screen and sweeps your remains up (a la Marble Madness) and the planet blows up into little bits (a la Dan Dare). The rotational movement of Arnold is extremely well done and easy to use, and helps speed up the game. Most people should be satisfied with Bombscare for a mere £1.99, but I've seen it all before.

Firebird
£1.99

Somewhere on the icy wastes of the planet Neptune lies a research station. Inside the station an alien enemy has planted a huge timebomb and the base has been evacuated. It's a job for the bomb disposal man, or in this case the bomb disposal robot. You've got to guide your faithful defusing machine around the station to deactivate the bomb before it goes boom and puts Neptune firmly in the asteroid belt. To keep you company on your quest the aliens have left behind a whole host of nasties that'll deplete your energy should you be unlucky enough to run into one.

To make the bomb completely harmless you have to lay your hands on some bits of equipment scattered around the station. There are also other useful objects which enable you to recharge your energy and firepower plus a few other things into the bargain. The teleport system helps you gad about but you're going to have to work out how to use it yourself.

Screen display is in nifty isometric 3D, your robot's status shown at the bottom. Controlling the robot can be a bit tricky at first as it uses the rotate and move method and it's all quite realistic too. I had a distinct tendency to overshoot doorways and the like, To make it even harder the baddies don't just lay down and die gracefully when you zap them - they simply reappear moments later.

Graphics and sound are nicely presented, even down to the little brush that appears before you've had time to draw your last breath after being blasted to sweep up your remains. All in all, a well put together and challenging arcade adventure.

Label: Firebird
Author: J Bond
Price: £1.99
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Highway Encounter meets Knight Lore.

Bombscare is not original but it is a technically very prficient program at a budget price.

The Highway influence is the strongest. Some of the objects, like little grey pyramids seem directly stolen from the game. More generally, the style of the monsters, central figure and the flooring all have a familiar ring.

Bombscare is all about defusing a bomb, planted by an alien intelligence, in the goodie base. You control Arnold, another one of those cutesy named robots that populate computer games.

Defusing the bomb involves collecting and using objects. You can hold up to five and have to figure out what does what. Pretty much par for the course, really.

Each room in the base is filled to the brim with aliens which wizz back and forth and are to be avoided. There are transporters but before you can use them you need a security code that represents where you want to go. Getting it requires more investigation. Personally, I think it's going to need a computer, I expect there is one somewhere around.

I found some of the screens a bit similar and there really isn't anything too original.

The programming is slick however, the design and animation of the aliens is very smooth.

Whatever criticisms one might make about the plot this is way above the usual quality of budget programs and I wouldn't have put it past some other companies to have put this one out for full price.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Firebird
PRICE: £1.99

Budget games just seem to get better and better. Bombscare is one of the best I've seen for a long time. It's a race against time on the planet Neptune where an enemy has planted a big bomb in the space station. Only Arnold, the cute bomb disposal droid, can stop the base being destroyed.

You're in control of Arnold and must guide him through the many detailed 3D rooms in search of the correct tools to help defuse the bomb. Each room is inhabited by energy draining creatures left behind by the enemy. Arnold can avoid or zap them - but his supply of ammo is limited.

Objects he discovers can come in useful. He can find things that give him extra lives, transport him from place to place, act as SMART bombs - blasting all the creatures in a room - or protect him from harm.

Things that look like shields are protection devices, bomb shaped objects blast the creatures, an odd pyramid thingy acts as a transport back to the "bomb" room, while a square shaped doodah with a wiggly line across it will transport Arnold to the exit when activated. Many other objects can be found, but I've yet to work out their functions.

Arnold can carry up to five objects which are selected and activated via the keyboard. Joystick controls are used to move the droid around and fire at things. A small window on the right hand side of the screen displays the object currently in use.

You really have to work out what does which simply by activating the object you've picked up and watching what happens on screen or on your status readouts. Some objects help keep Arnold going by replacing lost energy and zapping power.

There are teleports dotted around the space station which you access by running into them. A small window opens in the middle of the screen requesting a password - as in Starquake. If you don't know the password you're stuck! And quite where you find them I'm not sure yet.

You'll need to hang onto the objects which get you back to the "bomb" room and the exit in order to make a quick getaway. Even if you don't succeed in defusing the bomb you can get Arnold out of the space station before the big bang by making a dash for the exit. This gives you a 1,000 point bonus but not a lot of satisfaction!

If you don't kill the bomb you see a nice end-game sequence in which the plant is blown into a billion bits!

It's amazing to think that a couple of years ago a game like this would have cost around £9, would probably have come from Ultimate and have been described as a major leap forward in games technology.

Here we have a game that costs just a quarter of the price, has great graphics, good sound, is immensely playable and only costs £1.99.

Bombscare is a brilliant budget release destined for a very high chart placing. One some software houses producing full price games should look at and take note. Get it!

Spectrum
Firebird
Arcade Adventure
£1.99

There was a time when every new release from Ultimate was greeted with cheers and excellent reviews from everyone concerned. Unfortunately, that obviously gave the programmers a false sense of security and soon the games were boring and very unoriginal.

Bombscare is a game Ultimate might well have produced in the later stages of its independence, the main difference being that Ultimate would have tried to sell it for a tenner, whereas Firebird is being much more realistic in asking for £1.99.

Firebird
£1.99

Just lately I've been dreading the arrival of each new game in the Firebird budget range because they've come up with some right duds recently, but with titles like Thrust and now Bombscare Firebird can start to hold their head up again (though without getting too big headed, since Mastertronic are still out in front when it comes to budget games).

Bombscare is a sort of budget version of Alien 8, employing the Ultimate style of 3D graphics that just about everyone's using these days. You control a bomb disposal robot called ARNOLD in an attempt to defuse the time bomb planted on a space station in orbit around the planet Neptune. To do this you'll have to search the station for the tools and equipment that's needed, and work out how best to use all these things. Arnold can carry up to five objects at a time, and there's a teleport system that can be used to move around the station quickly (if you can work out the passwords required to activate it).

Along the way there are lots of 'absorbing devices' which pop out of thin air and drain ARNOLD'S energy supply. You can survive several contacts with these before losing a life at which point you turn into a pile of dust and get swept away with a brush. You can fire your own missiles at these devices in order to get them out of the way, though your supply is limited so it's best to get used to controlling ARNOLD'S rotating style of movement in order to avoid collisions.

The main challenge in the game is exploration and locating objects, but as there isn't much in the way of obstacles or problem solving to deal with and to lend a bit of spice to the business of exploration, Bombscare is unlikely to offer the some challenge over a period of time that Alien 8 might. On the other hand, Bombscare only costs about a fifth of what Allen 8 would set you back, and it's still good enough to keep you occupied for a few evenings now that winter's on its way.