Producer: Carnell Software
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Stephen Kirk

Here's the chance you've all been waiting for - become a St. Bernard dog called Brandy and rescue your mistress from the clutches of the abominable snowman. The scene is some northern wastelands where he lives a rugged and dangerous existence among the mountains and ice fields.

In stage one, you must make Brandy run along, but he is beset by black wolves from both sides. Turning him to face the attacking wolf at the right moment will result in the wolf's death. Whichever direction he runs in, a wolf will attack from behind. After seventeen dead wolves Brandy moves to the next screen where he has to jump over holes in the ice through which walruses are rearing up. Stage three sees Brandy climbing up to the snowman's lair, leaping over falling snowballs and fighting off the wolves again. Stage four, and we are nearing the lair. The snowman jumps up and down, causing Brandy to slip down the mountain. In stage five there are more pools of water, a walrus and skating penguins.

COMMENTS

Control Keys: 5 or Z left, 8 or M right, SPACE to jump
Joystick: Protek, AGF
Keyboard Play: frustratingly inhibited
Use of colour: for an icy game very good
Graphics: simple animation against scrolling background
Sound: fair
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: 5

I was quite surprised when a 3D view appeared in a way that I only noticed after about 5-10 minutes playing - the foreground moves much more quickly than the background. Brandy runs fairly well for a dog with only two legs and a tablecloth looking tail! A transparent walrus takes the theme of ice and cold a little too far, and they are also very difficult to jump. After a short while the entire game becomes repetitive and boring.

The graphics are nice and big and reasonably well animated, but I had terrible trouble getting the dog to jump a walrus. It takes off with encouraging energy, and then seems to hover in mid-air, waiting for the beast to come up underneath it. The skating penguins are very good. This isn't a fast game, and the main irritation is in the very slow response to the keys, intended presumably, but not very good as it just frustrates in the end.

This is quite an original idea with quite good graphics but all in all, not quite good enough to appeal for very long. It takes ages to get through a stage considering what's happening in each one, and so soon becomes uninteresting.

Every day. Brandy the St Bernard dog has to face blizzards and other hinderances on his way to rescue travellers. His current adventure is to rescue his mistress from the Abominable Snowman.

Gerralt: It's rather a slow game, not only is there sluggish response to the controls, but the animation is also jerky. The graphics are reasonably good on the characters and the landscape, but on the whole I found it rather boring. 6/10.

Ieuan: Good graphics detail for the characters and the arctic landscape, but the animation is rather jerky. I found it more pleasing to the eye in monochrome. 7/10

Dilwyn: Players tend to become frustrated at having to go through the first rather silly stage, every time the game restarts. But overall, not too bad. 8/10

ST BERNARD'S MISSION DOGGED BY DISASTER

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Protek, AGF II

Adventures of St Bernard for the 48K Spectrum was produced by a husband-and-wife team and the graphics by former fashion designer Linda Ferguson are very attractive.

The story features Brandy the St Bernard dog, who is trying to rescue his mistress from the clutches of the Abominable Snowman. In the first stage of his mission, Brandy is besieged by a pack of wolves. If he manages to kill them all, by turning to face each one, he goes on to stage two which involves jumping over icy pools, in many cases inhabited by a walrus which makes a successful leap more difficult.

Stage three features tumbling snowballs and more wolves. Then there is the Snowman and finally more pools and a horde of skating penguins.

The game is an addictive one and should appeal to anyone with plenty of persistence and a good sense of timing. It also makes a pleasant change from the more violent scenarios of most Spectrum games.

The Adventures of St Bernard is produced by Carnell Software.