Dyadic

Phoenix Software Systems and later Persona

Kassoft of ESI

Andrzej Mielcarek

Dyadic is a compilation of two puzzle games; Craft and Snakemania.

In Craft, your aim is to connect all the sections of wire from the grid presented to you. You can rotate each individual block in units of 90 degrees, or shift the whole row horizontally.

In Snakemania, you must collect each of the dots in the maze, being careful not to trap yourself by your tail which grows longer with the more you eat.

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

Review by Steven Pick from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook

Puzzle games!! Arrghh!! But don’t fear, SAM owner. Don’t throw out your SAM out of the window to the disbelieving crowds below. For this duel compilation is in fact (dare I say it!) original! Well, one of them is and the other is QUITE original, never the less. This compilation has been out and about for absolutely ages and ages, but is back again in the public eye - and how! The first thing to strike you is the “slow loading” system, which I was guarenteed by David Ledbury to be reliable (but ending up putting a HUGE bug in Craft). Craft is the first of the two game pack, and simply presents you with 80 levels of twisted circuit tiles, which you must rearrange into a complete circuit, and speed you off to the next level. This is all done in a time limit, though. The game is written by ESI (yeah!!). From what I have seen so far (until that reeeaallllyyy nasty bug came up in Craft) the game is certainly presentable! The graphics are more than functional (though what else can you do with tiles?) and the music is quite nice, too. The difficulty curve is that so you can learn from your mistakes, and keep this “vital” information all ready for the next level.

The other game on this compilation is the completely original one of the pack, entitled Snakemania. Basically, the game is based on the golden oldie, Snake. Snake, if you can remember that far back, was set on a green field. You were controlling a snake, eating mushrooms and consequently, getting more and more longer. Meaning that your body was becoming a hazard, not just the four walls which surrounded the field.

Snakemania, on the other hand, crosses this oldie with another oldie - Pacman, making the game original (unheard of in the Coupe puzzle fraternity.) and immensely playable. There are 40 odd mazes which you have to negotiate, with your snake growing bigger with every pill you consume. The levels can become quite infuriating at times, but not as much that you take out the disk and bite holes in it! The difficulty curve is incredibly reasonable, but should be more suited to the older puzzler than the younger - this is a forward thinking job!

Graphics are, again, more than functional, and complement the rather stylish music that happens in the background. Unfortunately, the duffer with this one is that there is no password system (compared to Craft’s rather adequate password system) so you’ll have to play through all those levels to reach the ending. Arrgggh! So, as a whole, this is a worthwhile purchase for you to treat your Coupe with. Two nicely pleasent and relaxing puzzlers to get your teeth into (you can also buy them separately, folks!). Hang on! Dave has just had a word with me on the phone! If you have a bugged game, try typing in on Craft’s password system… 360995. Ta!

Craft was originally to have been published by SamCo’s software wing, Revelation, and a demo appeared on issue 5 of the Newsdisk.

Snakemania

Whilst loading the game hold down the DELETE key.

Craft
From Niko Kaiser, Spectrum and Sam Profi Club Koln

In title screen type in KASATKIN (Kassoft’s name), you have now infinite lives and every screen can be solved by pressing the F7 key.

There are also some passwords: