Producer: Beyond Software
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: Denton Designs

Bounces is the super-sport of the future, despite the fact that it's played by a Couple of dudes dressed up as a viking and a knight-in-armour.

Eric and Ashley (for it is they) compete in a sort of ball-game come sword fight which can be played by one or two players on the Spectrum. The action takes place in an enclosed arena, and both players are linked to one end of the court by a piece of elastic which continually pulls them back. Friction soled shoes are their only ally... An overhead pipeway fires a ball into play and the aim of the game is to shoot the ball into one of the goals in the ceiling. The ball ricochets off the walls, floors and ceiling of the court at great speed and is quite capable of bowling a player over.

Players hold a catcher in one hand and the ball may be seized and retained if it is in reach by pressing the fire button. Releasing fire shoots the ball back into play. A player's arm may be moved to eight different positions, and the ultimate aim is to shoot for goal, although if all else fails, direct confrontation is quite good fun. Try bopping your opponent over the head or poking him in the stomach with the catcher!

Status bars monitor both players' energy levels - collisions with the back wall, the ball or the opponent's catcher result in energy loss. Sand trickling through an hour glass indicates how much time has elapsed since play began: the game is played in two ninety second halves and in good sporting spirit, you get to change ends half way through.

The players can bend down, jump up, stump forwards and backwards during a bout. After each game finishes a results screen appears which keeps a running total of Eric and Ashley s respective victories.

Points are scored for bopping your opponent with the catcher or a well-aimed ball as well as for popping the ball into one of the three ceiling goals at the other end of the arena. While a player can recover energy by taking a rest on-court, running the energy bar into the red results in temporary paralysis and a set of three undefended goals for the opposition to aim for.

COMMENTS

Control keys: 1 up, 2 down, 3 left, 4 right, 5 fire
Joystick: Kempston, AGF/Protek, Fuller, Interface 2
Keyboard play: a bit tricky
Use of colour: straightforward
Graphics: neat
Sound: spot effects
Skill levels: two
Screens: one

Bounces is quite a neat game. I'm not convinced it's excellent, but it's quite good, and relatively challenging. I don't agree with 'Sport of the Future' though: I can't see masses of footie fans following this every Saturday in 20something-or-other! There are different ways to play, and it's easy to build up a personal though I can see it getting boring after a while. The ten quid price tag is a bit high, and the game could be improved upon in quite a few ways. Nothing stunning, really.

I had a little trouble getting started as I wasn't supplied with any instructions, so I had to learn how to play it from scratch. I had just about mastered control on my fourth go. The graphics are very pretty, and there are no attribute problems or graphics flicker. Sound is fairly well used, although a tune would have added to the atmosphere of the game. I don't really see this game doing terribly well, as it costs too much. For a tenner I would expect a few more adversaries and the odd change of scenery too.

Bounces is one of the better games from the Denton Design team, after the appalling Transformers, and it combines smooth animation with some well drawn characters. When the men move you can see their bodies lunge forward trying to break the strain of the cord which stops them from bashing the other man to bits. When they hit the wall the legs of the men do actually fall from underneath them as they crumple up. I found the game hard to play at first, but once the rules are understood you can have a very competitive game with your opponent - be it the computer or a human friend. Bounces is a very strange sports game which is most fun in the two player mode. Beyond have got a game which is very playable - it requires a keen eye to judge where the ball will bounce off to next. Bounces is a good game if you like something out of the ordinary.

Beyond
£9.95

It's that daft time of year when good money's thrown away on trite ideas based on tried and trusted trashy formulae in the hope that poor Joe Soap Public will lash out with the spondulics. But what has the Eurovision Song Contest got to do with this game I hear you ask? The two main characters are tied up like 'Puppets on a string' one of whom is bound to meet his 'Waterloo' - and you might want to 'Boom-Bang-a-Bang' with someone's head for coming up with this load of round bouncy things.

The 'idea' of the game is that two warriors who're tied to big elastic bands must kill each other by catching a ball that ricochets around the room. They fire it at each other or engage in hand to hand combat. It takes real skill to avoid the ricochets, catch the ball and hurl it at your opponent without backing into a wall and falling over. You can jump and duck (a teensy bit) or go back and forth. Otherwise you've the manoeuvrability of an Arsenal forward with his legs tied together (which is more, I might add, than when they're not).

Yes, there's a vague suggestion of Mad Maxish gladiatorial warriors tied to what looks like extending dog leads and fighting to the death. Yes, there's a hint of Roller Ball as the projectile whizzes around and gets shot into the arena at different angles and speeds. And there's no little skill required to catch the ball in the first place. But the premise of the game goes back to the dinosaur days of the first computer squash games. And what a wimp title! 'Bounces'! Why not call it what there's load of in the game and what everyone will be saying after they've played it. 'Balls!'

As the say in the Euro Compo - "Beyond - 0 points". Still, it takes the heat off Norway.

Publisher Monolith
Price: £9.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Fuller, Kempston, Sinclair, Protek

Imagine a game like squash only the ball is allowed to rebound from above you as well as in front. And imagine that you don't use a racket, but a sort of scoop in which you catch the ball then shoot it out. Imagine also that facing you is an armoured opponent, and he's hell bent on preventing you from firing that projectile through one of the small holes in the ceiling above him.

Now this is where it gets weird, because you are wearing roller skates and, to make matters worse, the elastic of your trousers seems to have got caught on the wall behind you and keeps dragging you back. Meanwhile, nobody's going to stop the behemoth opposite doing you GBH so you'd better be prepared to get involved in some body contact sport. Imagined all of that? Then you've imagined Bounces - Sport Future.

Or to put it another way, you've imagined the new game from Denton home of original gameplay. Bounces, rather like Rollerball, is a sport devised by the corporations of some unspecified future, in which clone warriors battle it out in the arena. Two of the most famous contenders are Sir Ashley Trueblood, all-round good guy and representative of the Knight-Techni-Corp, and Erik the Red, the guy you love to hate from the Viking-Synthi-Corp.

Being an upright Spectrum owner, it's presumed that you'll want to control Ashley - corrupt Commodore types being given the option on Erik. You'll have to choose one of two skill levels though, as well as a one or two player game and, of course, the control mode.

A word of warning about the controls. At first I tried the keyboard and found the line of keys one to five illogical and clumsy. Switching over to a joystick made an immediate improvement and within no time actions had become second nature. The ratings therefore represent the game using a joystick. If you've not got one - forget it!

You'll need to master the controls, not because they're complex, but because you'll have to react with extreme accuracy of timing and placing. Forward takes you towards Erik and back returns you to the wall, accelerated by the Plas-flex wire. Down takes you into a crouch which stabilises your position, thanks to your Fric-toe caps, while up gets you off the floor or makes you jump - once you leave terra firma you'll really fly back towards the wall.

Pressing fire transfers control to Ashley's arm so that you can intercept the Low-grav slugdomium sphere as it ricochets around. Once you've got it, aim the arm then release the button to let fly. Obviously, this means that the only movement possible when in possession is backwards, dragged by the Plas-flex, so position yourself carefully beforehand.

Scoring is achieved in two ways. The gentlemanly way is to score goals by blasting the sphere through the holes in the ceiling above your opponent - the closer to the back wall, the higher your score. The ball then runs along a channel to the centre to drop back into play. But if you don't fancy a good clean fight, go for a good dirty one!

Hitting your opponent with a speeding sphere will topple him unless he's lucky enough to intercept it. Or you can get in close and batter him with your ball snatcher. Either way you'll get points.

Be on your guard though, or you'll end up scoring own goals. Putting the ball through one of the holes on your side adds to Erik's score, as does allowing the elastic to smash you against the back wall. These impacts can bring the game to an abrupt end in another way. Each time you hit the ground or get knocked over you lose strength. Although you do recoup some of this, too many crashes will kill you.

Each game lasts only three minutes, divided into two halves, but the action is fast, frantic and continuous. At the end of a game - providing you survive - your points will be added to your previous total and a tally of wins and losses is kept. Then it's on to the next battle of these giants of the arena.

While Bounces looks graphically rather plain, apart from the well animated, solid looking figures, it soon has you hooked. It's not an easy game to play, but even at the start you'll want to persist and pretty soon you'll find the points margins are shrinking and you're even drawing games. In fact, it's just like learning a real sport and mastering its techniques. You'll also find that you develop various strategies of play, balancing the aggressive with the restrained, attack and defence.

Erik is carefully programmed to provide stiff competition, though on the easiest level he is rather more forgiving. He too has his strategies; one particular favourite seems to be knocking you over with the ball, catching it on the rebound and firing at your ceiling while you're still getting up. This all adds to the addictive quality of the game, and should give it a good lifespan.

Congratulations then, Denton, for inventing an original game with admirably simple rules, that avoids being yet another contribution to the spate of martial arts simulations. If you've got any interest in this type of game you should enjoy it. It certainly puts the bounce back into Spectrum sports!

Label: Firebird
Author: Beyond/Monolith
Price: £1.99
Joystick: various
Reviewer: Tony Dillon

Firebird seems to be getting something of a reputation for pushing reissued full-price stuff on budget. This time it's an old Beyond title, Bounces, that gets the treatment.

In the future, the game to play is Bounces and the place to play it is the Leisure Dome. Leisure plays a large part in the lifestyles of the citizens of future Earth and everyone is an employee of the Eco-Zone Corp, they spend meat of their time in the domes playing Bounces.

It's like a slightly advanced game of catch. Two players stand facing each other at opposite ends of the arena. They then proceed to throw a ball at each other. Note: at, not to. One person throws the ball, and the other tries to catch it by moving forward or backward, or by jumping up and down. When you throw the ball you can control the on-screen player by pressing Fire to move his aims. Just to complicate matters, both players are tied to walls on pieces of elastic, and should your stamina drop, you are pulled beck to earth with a bump.

Bounces wasn't exactly met with terrific enthusiasm when it was first released and neither is it now. Good for a rainy afternoon.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Beyond
PRICE: £9.95

Bounces is a nice idea but, unfortunately, falls a little flat. There's just not enough depth to the game to keep any interest going. The game is set in, apparently, a futuristic sports chamber, where two knights battle it out.

The knights - Ashley and Erik - are attached to what appears to be energy sapping elastic bands which the combatants must fight against.

A ball drops down into the chamber and bounces around. In their hands the knights carry "ball snatchers", a stick-like weapon for catching and hitting the ball.

Basically, the game can be described as a sort of futurist squash on elastic bands. Good fun, but over-priced.

ASHLEY AND ERIC AT FULL STRETCH IN A SPACE-AGE BALL GAME YOU WON'T FIND IN THE HISTORY BOOKS.

Beyond Software
£9.95

At first I couldn't figure out what 1 was supposed to be doing in this game at all, but after a while I began to realise that it's actually quite a subtle game in a sneaky sort of way.

Upon loading there's a demo mode which shows a court, a rectangular playing area that stretches across the width of the screen and occupies the top two thirds of it. At either end of the court are two medieval knights, named (would you believe it?) Ashley and Eric. In one player mode you control Ashley - a large and finely animated figure in full armour, topped with a plume of feathers - whilst the computer plays the surly looking Eric. There is also a two player option allowing you to play against someone else (which is probably a good idea since I haven't yet managed to beat the computer-controlled Eric even on the beginner's level).

You are both armed with short tubes, and tied to the walls at each end of the court by elastic ropes fixed around your waists. Below the court, in the lower part of the screen are an egg-timer which counts down the time left in each game, and bars which register the energy level of each player. Pressing 'S' starts the game as a small yellow ball gets thrown onto the court.

This is where I first got confused. The name Bounces led me to expect a variation on squash or handball, and at first you could think that this is what you've got here. Ashley and Eric can catch the ball in their tubes and shoot it back out again in any direction, but in fact keeping the ball in play isn't all that important. The whole point of the game is to bash your opponent and knock him over. You only score a point when your opponent falls over - the position of the ball doesn't affect the score at all unless you've actually bounced the ball off of Eric in order to send him sprawling.

Catching the ball is tricky (possibly a little too tricky) and requires a fair bit of skill and practice, but firing the ball at Eric is the best way of scoring a point off him, with the minimum risk to your own player. Though if you do try this, there's always the possibility that he may catch it and send it back to bounce off you.

Once I realised that this was the point of the game I experimented a bit and totally ignored the ball for a while instead. I got young Ashley to stretch his rope right across the court, walk up to Eric and shove the tube right in his face. I did score a point, but as soon as Eric got to his feet again he bounced the ball off Ashley's kneecaps and levelled the score.

I realise that this may not sound terribly subtle, but after playing the game for a while I began to realise that there are all sorts of little tricks that you can bring into play, and the addition of the elastic ropes adds an extra twist to the game. In order to move around the court you have got to constantly keep pulling against the rope which will pull you into the wall at the end of the court if you're not careful, giving a point to your opponent. The trouble is that pulling against the rope drains your energy level - the further across court you go, the faster your energy falls - so you have to very carefully judge when to stay back and wait for the ball while your energy builds up, and when to rush forward and nobble Eric.

The more I play Bounces the more enjoyable it becomes. Like squash it's a fast and basically simple game, but one which provides plenty of scope for skill and strategy, and because of that it's also likely to be one of those games that you can keep on coming back to as you learn more and more about how to play it.