Producer: Macsen
Retail Price: £8.95
Author: GBA Cyf

MACSEN specialise in producing computerised versions of well-known TV game shows, and this darts game hosted by Bully the bull in his cute striped overall first appeared on TV sets tuned to Central TV. This two-player game has four rounds, with a practice option available to help you gain confidence when throwing the darts at the dartboard.

There are nine skill levels in the game, selected at the start before the players' names are keyed in. Darts are aimed by using the cursor keys to move a hand below the dartboard to the left and right. A strength bar display in the status area monitors the power of the throw - the harder the throw, the nearer to the top of the dartboard the dart lands. The strength meter rises when the Cursor Up key is held down - releasing the key throws the dart.

Each player is summoned to the ockey by Bully. A dartboard with ten sections labeled A to J is provided in section one. Each letter represents a different subject. Select a subject to answer questions on and then throw a dart so that it lands inside the segment of your choice. A miss means you must answer a question on whichever subject your dart lands on. Score a hit, and bonus points are awarded before the question is asked. There is only a certain amount of time in which each question must be answered, but players usually get two attempts.

Round two consists of regular darts throwing. Each player is called to the ockey three times and throws three darts, going for the highest score. Whoever has the highest score after each turn gets to answer a general knowledge question which wins more points if answered correctly. An incorrect answer gives the question over to the opponent. Then it's on to round three...

Whoever is winning at this stage in the game has a bonus question, and the chance to collect more points. On round three the player is presented with a dartboard with sixteen segments on it, eight black and eight red. Each red segment is worth bonus points, while the black areas don't matter. Nine arrows are supplied and the bonus value of a red area is won if a single dart lands in it. However, if you hit the same red segment twice, the bonus value is deducted from your score.

Section four is purely for gamblers. The leader is asked whether he or she wants to gamble the points collected so far - gambling is optional and if the leader declines then the chance passes over to the other player. A regular dartboard is presented on the screen, and scoring over 110 points with the four darts supplied doubles the score if you decide to gamble. Score less than 110 and the score amassed is halved.

Two additional question files are supplied on the cassette should you too familiar with those in the basic set, and a mini-league table records players' progress in the games played during a session.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Cursor left, right and up
Joystick: not applicable
Keyboard play: a bit too responsive for fine control
Use of colour: okay
Graphics: detailed dartboards and adequate Bully
Sound: tune and occasional spot effects
Skill levels: nine
Screens: one for each of the four stages

Bullseye is not a good game. Frankly, I don't like it at all. The graphics are too big, and the game is difficult to control. The tunes are annoying, and they make long waits necessary. As far as the playability and addictivity are concerned, I don't think that Bullseye is worth commenting on at all. The game is, in a word, bad. If you're a dedicated addict of the TV series, then a) I'm very sorry for you, and b) you might like this game. Otherwise, leave well alone.

Ugh! What a horrible game show, who in their right mind would make it into a computer game? Well MACSEN have and to tell you the truth they haven't done as bad a job on it as they could have done. At first sight it looks pretty enough: there are a few nice big and colourful cartoon-like graphics and the board is well defined. There is a little colour clash, but it isn't really that noticeable. The sound is about average for this type of game; them is a tune on the title screen and a couple of spot effects during play. The gameplay, unfortunately is not half as good as the presentation - long waits between screens and slow response to keyboard input makes this already uninspiring game very monotonous indeed.

I suppose you can't expect much from a computer game that is based on a TV program like Bullseye - and the final result gives you even less. I must admit that Bullseye isn't as bad as some of the games that MACSEN have brought out - but what the game lacks is answers. As with Play Your Cards Right, you can get the question wrong and no one will tell you the answer - most infuriating. The graphics are quite good, with nice drawings of Bully and a neatly laid out dart board. Unfortunately TV quiz games on computer just don't work in my opinion.... half the fun is audience reaction and compering, and this is sadly missing from computer versions.

Author: Macsen
Price: £00.00
Memory: 48K
Reviewer: Jerry Muir

I've only ever caught sight of the Bulls Eye TV programme when flicking through the channels - and the sight of the gravel voiced compere was enough to make me flick further immediately!

The one idea that fills me with horror, more than the thought of watching darts, is a quiz show based on the game.

I approached this computer version then with trepidation. Would Jocky Wilson suddenly come bursting from my monitor? Obviously they've saved the full bulk of the darts pro for the expanded 128K version (joke - I hope!) because apart from the cartoon bull the only part of 'arrow' throwing anatomy you get to see is a hand.

It's a generally accepted fact that quiz games don't work well on a micro - which has never stopped companies trying. The current title does have an advantage though. The dart throwing means that instead of endless answers and a feeling of deja vu as they increasingly often repeat, there are far fewer questions to a round but a bit of arcade action to break them up.

This is strictly a two-player game and at the start you each throw to answer from one of ten categories. If your dart lands in the one you've named as your choice then you score a bonus. Each player gets three goes before round two when whoever scores highest on a normal board gets to answer a general knowledge question - a wrong answer passes it to their opponent.

The current winner then throws at a special board, gaining points for hitting a red section once but losing the bonus if they hit it again. Finally comes the gambling round. The leader is given the opportunity to double the score if s/he can score at least 101 with four darts.

This all plays very smoothly with limited fuzzy recognition to allow for typing errors and difficulty levels which adjust the time limit to answer questions. Darts are thrown by moving a disembodied hand at the bottom of the screen left to right then adjusting the force of the shot to place it on the board. While it's fairly easy to target subjects in Round 1 I suspect that it becomes harder in the later, purely darts rounds.

As with all the Macsen TV spin-off titles, this will be of more interest if you like the programme it ties in with.

I don't but I still found it one of the more enjoyable quiz games I've played. Though it's unlikely to be loaded too often, I'd rather play it than watch the real thing!