WaterWorks

Fred Publishing

Martin Bell

Martin Bell

Andy Monk

Waterworks is a game the like of which has never been seen before - let alone on the SAM.

A cross between arcade, strategy and puzzle. WaterWorks provides you with a unique experience - combining speed, addictiveness, the need for forward planning and lateral thinking.

You must take control of the hundreds of water particles which can be moved individually to open doors, flood rooms, kill aliens, and lots more.

You have the full use of various plumbing utensils: pipes, pumps, taps, nozzles, switches, water collectors and drains to name a few. You can either progress steadily through all 20 levels - or you can just have fun flooding rooms and killing aliens!

Any person caught pirating this game will be given concrete boots and free bunjee jumping lessons from the London Tower Bridge (elastic not supplied).

In each of the WaterWorks levels you must escape through the exit - naturally, it is locked so a key must be found. In case you were ready for an easy game, you might be surprised to hear that numerous puzzles must be solved before completing each level - generally involving the use of pipes and the transfer of water!

The water in the game flows pretty much like normal water so common sense is fairly important.

There are numerous ways that you can die in the game: being crushed under a door, drowning or touching an alien or spike. If you get stuck, pressing ESC lets you start the level again.

Whenever you complete a level, you are given the password to the next level so that when you lose all your lives, you don’t have to play through dozens of levels.

Items in the game

Blue pipes: Allows water to flow though them. Cannot be moved.

Red pipes: Same as blue pipes except they can be moved. To pick one (or any other item) up, press fire over it. Fire again will drop it. If you are holding something while picking up/dropping an item, the two will be swapped. You should note that if water flows through a pipe, there is a good chance that there will be water left in the pipe (see Water Level indicator on right of screen). the pipe, with water, can then be moved.

Nozzles: Water will not flow out of a normal pipe into the level area. However, if a Nozzle is attached to a water supply, then the water will flow out. Water in the level area acts like any liquid - falls due to gravity and settles flat on a surface.

Water Collectors: These funnel water from the bottom of a reservoir (possibly supplied by a nozzle) into a pipe network.

Switches: Pressing a switch activates one of three devices: taps, doors or spikes.

Water Switches: Same as normal Switches except that instead of the player triggering them, the flow of water triggers them.

Taps: Can be opened or closed by both switches. When closed, they stop the flow of water through a pipe.

Doors: Are operated by both switches. Nothing can pass through a closed door and nothing can be placed directly under an open door.

Spikes: Triggered by switches, these shoot downwards killing either you or any aliens in their way.

Keys: Needed to complete a level. Can be found lying around in some levels or by killing aliens.

Drains: A good way of disposing of water.

Pumps: Water flowing into the side of a pump is forced up through to the top. Can be turned on and off by both switches.

Timers: When a timer reaches zero something is triggered.

Aliens: Aliens follow various paths and will kill you on contact. Aliens can be drowned or killed by a spike - provided a key can be placed where they die, it will be.

Helicopter: You! Can only be half submerged in water.

Submarine: You can transfer to the submarine on levels that it appears. it must be at least half submerged in water. To transfer between the helicopter and submarine press fire while both occupy the same space - which must be half filled with water to accommodate both vehicles.

Obviously, this being a puzzle game, the instructions aren’t overly helpful - but it shouldn’t take you too long to figure out how to pass the first few levels, then you’ll be laughing (or crying…).

You can either use QAOP and SPACE, Joystick or the Joystick keys: 6789 and 0.

We hope you enjoy the game.

Your Sinclair review, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.

Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

WATERWORKS is a bit of an old chestnut at the time of writing, but, if you’ve got a couple fivers burning a hole in your pocket then you’d be an absolute berk not to snap up Waterworks, for it is one of the most original and corkingly playable games I’ve ever had the pleasure of slotting into my drive (oo-er!).

Now, the problem with original games is that they are a bum and a half to explain. If you’ve seen the demos on Fred you’ll know how it plays, but if you ain’t. Well… Take a splash of FLOOD, a hefty dose of Pipe Mania, a honking great splodge of a jigsaw and big ol’ final dollop of originality.

And you get WATERWORKS.

Basically you have to connect up pipes so that water can flow from one place to another, maybe spilling out of a special outlet attachment or maybe activating a switch that does something, open/close a door, open/close a tap, send sharp spikes hurtling out to kill an enemy or any number of things.

You have to decide what switch activates what device, when the device should be activated and how the hell you’re going to get water over there thankyou-very- much!

Fortunately it’s not all click and guess, the problems are laid out so that lateral thinking will see you alright in the end, and the learning curve is fairly steep, but not to the point of being unfair (except on the last levels). So, if you stick at it, you will reap the rewards of seeing your tightly timed, precision built machine executing perfectly. And when that happens all seems right with the world, it’s really, genuinely, satisfying. Especially if the device culminates in the destruction of one or more of the bad guys.

Oh, I haven’t really mentioned how to complete a level have I? Well, you have to find a key, then put it in the door to escape. Be warned though, the door could be hidden behind a sliding door, and the key could be being held by and enemy.

Overall these are the marks I’d give it in these categories…

Waterworks passwords