Producer: Bubble Bus
Retail Price: £1.99
Language: Machine code
Author: T Prosser

Far into the future, a mad scientist called Professor Brainstorm (P Brain for short) created a system for cloning any living creature. Generally, the idea went down none too well and led to P Brain becoming a recluse on a desolate planet, deep in the centre of the universe.

In the best tradition of mad' scientists, he built a castle where he could continue his weird experiments. The creation of a 'warp tunnel' allowed him to capture creatures to experiment on. Of course, also in the best tradition (this time the one to do with The Fate of Evil Men) the professor's experimental results turned against him. They ate their creator, once they realised there wasn't a burger bar for several thousand light years. As time passed, they grew bigger and weirder and generally had a lot of fun romping round in the professor's castle. Oh yes, they grew hungrier too. Important point, that.

This is where you, Robin Banks, come in. You happen to be passing by, when the ancient but still active warp tunnel sucks you inside the castle. As far as the other creatures are concerned, Supper's Ready! And very, very late. To avoid becoming the futuristic version of a quarter-pounder, escape from the castle is imperative. That implies a lot of searching... for keys to open doors and the appropriate weapons to destroy Eight Guardians.

There are twenty eight different kinds of potential 'consumer' and although some of them bare a rather unnerving resemblance to cart wheels, they are all just as deadly. The screens flick-change, rather than scroll, and various nasties are sure to materialise soon after you enter a new screen. You travel 'Jet Pack' style, laser handy and one good shot dispenses with most unwanted company.

There are also eight guardians to be dispensed with. These vary from a snake head, to such things as a teapot. To get rid of these guys, special weaponry is needed. There are sixteen special weapons lying around for eradication of guardians, but eight of them are useless. To make things that bit more complex, the correct weapon for each guardian must be found and used to zap it.

It's only possible to carry one special weapon and up to three keys at a time. Objects carried are displayed at the bottom of the screen alongside two gauges. One gauge indicates the damage you've sustained as a result of collisions with clones while the other displays your energy level. Energy can be used to repair damage, but if you run out of energy then the laser packs up. If you suffer too much damage, then you lose a life. Both Energy and Damage readings can be improved by collecting damage repair and energy pods, and the odd extra life can be found.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q up, O left, P right, pick up/drop A, any key on bottom row fires laser, 1-4 or H-L to repair damage, ENTER to pause
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor
Keyboard play: no problems
Use of colour: average, not wonderful
Graphics: unremarkable
Sound: poor
Skill levels: one
Screens: 650

The game is reasonably good to play for a while. It's quite tricky to avoid the hundreds of creatures constantly trying to bump you off, though and I must admit to not getting very far. It comes down to whether or not you like simple shoot 'em ups with a few problems to get your brain ticking. It's fast enough, and there's plenty to see on the screen but none of it struck me as stunning. For the money, it's not bad. Highly derivative stuff that could provide some fun.

Maybe it was just our copy, but sometimes, when the creatures appeared on the screen, they left a few of their pixels behind, picking them up later on, if they crossed that area again. Sloppy, if it's a ubiquitous bug. Some of the rooms are cleverly designed but unimpressive graphics detract from their appeal. If you're an expert at Jetpac et al, then you should find this one no problem at all. Even at £1.99 though, this kind of thing is beginning to look more than a little dated.

After Bubble Bus's copy of Sabre Wulf, I see they have now resorted to copying the even older Jetpac. Unfortunately, there are too many similarities. I haven't much sympathy for companies who use the excuse of a cheap price to copy other games. There's no originality to be found in the plot either - that's reminiscent of Atic Atac. After Starquake I know that Bubble Bus can do better. A run of the mill game really. Let's hope they release some original games for the rest of their budget range.

Bubble Bus
£1.99

Back in the land of arcade adventure, you control Robin-Banks, an interplanetary alien zapper who's been sucked down the plughole into Professor Brainstorm's castle. You can escape by walking, or using your jetpack, through a 650 screen maze where you collect keys and special weapons to do away with the eight guardians.

All fairly standard stuff, though nicely done, as you'd expect from the ever improving Bubble Bus. There's a nice touch too in the use of momentum when steering Robin, and loss of life results in him flying around like a burst balloon.

So far, so good, but either I'm losing my touch or the game is just too difficult. The problem lies in the Clone's 28 varieties - that's almost half as many as Heinz! - whose ability to fill the airspace is worse than jets at Heathrow. Though they're easy to kill there're so many, and they replenish so often that it's nearly impossible to avoid them, even while shooting. What I saw I liked but its sheer difficulty eventually made me lose interest.

Publisher: Bubble Bus
Price: £1.99
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, cursor

A haunted castle, armies of aliens, special weapons, colour coded keys, and a frustrated little chap who bears a startling resemblance to Ultimate's Jetman make up Brainstorm.

The idea is to escape from the castle in one piece and that means defeating eight watchful guardians with special weapons found along the way, as well as the usual motley bunch of nasties.

The guardians are unusual - no monsters, instead they include a deadly teapot, a boot and light bulb. It fairly makes you tremble at the knees.

Doors must be opened and as only three keys can be carried at a time it is a good idea to map the locations of any keys left behind, and the colour and location of each doorway.

Picking up the keys can be very frustrating. The aliens are semi-intelligent and zoom in as soon as you stop - it is very easy to pick up one key and drop another.

Your little man moves smoothly enough and the nasties rematerialise at an alarming rate. Each time you touch one your damage rating rises.

Scoring is on a percentage scale depending on how far you have explored. The graphics are up to the Bubble Bus high standard and are well designed and colourful.

Brainstorm is not original by any means, but it is based on the highly successful arcade adventure format used by so many. If by chance you have not yet grown sick of games with huge areas of alien-filled rooms then it is not a bad deal - especially for its price.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Bubble Bus
PRICE: £1.99

Fresh from their success with Starquake Bubble Bus set out to over the pocket money people with Brainstorm - and it's a budget game that thinks it's a full price program.

Unlike many budget games Brainstorm is a high quality, highly playable game. Here's what it's all about.

Professor Brainstorm had perfected a cloning system to produce a replica of any living creature.

People were afraid of the Professor and his creation, so he hid himself away on a lost planet and built a castle.

He constructed a warp tunnel to trap any creatures that happened to be passing by, so that he could perfect his cloning system to an even greater degree, which he would use against his "enemies" on Earth.

However, his plan backfired and the Clones he created turned against him and devoured him.

Over the years they grew , hungrier and hungrier, until one day our hero, Robin Banks, happened to be passing by, zapping aliens and generally minding his own business, when he was sucked into Professor Brainstorm's warp tunnel.

He found himself surrounded by hungry Clones. Escape from the castle is his only hope of survival.

The game has 650 different locations, 28 varieties of Clones, 62 doors to find and open using keys that are scattered around and eight Guardians of the Tower.

Only three keys may be carried at any one time and only one of the special weapons.

At the bottom of the screen there are two gauges, one energy the other for damage. This can be repaired at the cost of some energy, or by finding a repair damage pod.

The graphics are above standard for a budget game, the sounds are average for the Spectrum - and the game has that all important addictiveness. Tremendous value for just £1.99.