Game
Mind Games 1
Submitted by solaris104 on Tue, 2006-03-07 00:26. Game
The Famous Five
Submitted by spt on Tue, 2006-03-07 00:16. Game
Enigma Variations - later by Colin Jordan
1990
A text adventure, based on Enid Blyton’s novel, “Five On A Treasure Island”.
A novel feature is that you can switch your point-of-view between any of the four children, each of whom may spot different details when you examine an object or location.
ENID BLYTON’S FAMOUS FIVE IN FIVE ON A TREASURE ISLAND
Loading
———-
Reset the machine.
Tape: Press the F7 key and then press play.
——
Disk: Press the F9 key. Users with the original rom press F9, then type CALL
——-
229385 (or CALL 491529 for 512K machines). Press F9 again.
256k disk users should leave the disk in the drive while playing. 512k users
may remove it after loading.
NEVER LEAVE THE DISK IN THE DRIVE WHEN YOU RESET OR TURN THE POWER OFF. YOU
COULD DAMAGE THE DISK. ENIGMA CANNOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR DISKS DAMAGED IN
THIS WAY.
The story
————-
The plot and characters in FAMOUS FIVE are closely based on Enid Blyton’s
book “Five on a Treasure Island”. No knowledge of the book is assumed
at any point, enabling people who have never read any of the Famous Five
hooks to get to grips with the game without difficulty.
The Famous Five are Julian, Dick, Anne, their cousin George (short for
Georgina) and George’s dog Timmy. At the start of the game, George’s mother,
Aunt Fanny, has invited them to stay with her in the seaside village of
Kirrin, during the summer holidays.
You start the game playing the role of Julian, but you may assume the
identity of any of the four human members of the five, swapping between them at
will, and even splitting up ! This will be explained in detail later on.
Crash review courtesy of worldofspectrum.org
Grubbing For Gold
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Fri, 2006-02-10 01:34. Game
1995
A quiz game, parodying the format of “Going For Gold”, a lunchtime TV quiz programme of the early nineties.
Football League Manager
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Thu, 2006-02-09 22:06. Game
David Handley
Steve Handley
1992
Football management game with a quality ‘Match Of The Day’ theme tune.
Review by Steven Pick from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
Football - it’s a funny old game, isn’t it? I mean, you’ve got twenty-two blokes on a field, hitting the ball with their feet into the opposing teams goals. It was also funny that we invented the bloody thing, only to be outdone by the Germans. Still, it’s a funny game on the SAM, too. Only one commercial footie game has made it to the SAM - Football Director 2 (no FD 1 ..?) by D+H Games costing around £17 and was complete crap - like the Spectrum version (ho, ho). Still, this is the second game of it’s genre on the SAM and it’s a cracker.
I know what you’re thinking. I did the graphics for the game, so I’ll be raving highly about the graphics. Nope. When we went down to the 2nd Gloucester show, we were extremely lucky to obtain a preview copy of FLM from the author himself - David Handley. The actual review is for the game itself, which beats the hell out of Football Director 2 in more ways than one.
First off, an unseen addition thought up at the last minute allows you to play the Scottish League, and the option to play teams twice, all neatly presented (ahem) with a bog standard screen. Hidden gripe over - the actual game puts you in the shoes of one of ten managers, one of whom looks suspiciously like Alan Sugar. Still, after that, you are presented with a gorgeous (sorry for the self-praise!) menu screen with Wembley stadium in the background of nicely drawn (sorry!) icons. The whole thing is operated by either mouse or keyboard, driven by Steve Taylor’s excellent Mouse Driver 2.0, so this adds to the control of the game.
EGGBuM
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Thu, 2006-02-09 22:02. Game
Public Domain
Tim Paveley aka Unc
Steve Phillips aka Manga
1995
Superb little game.
“It’s a wonderful game.” “Classic” - Colin Anderton (ex-editor FRED Disk Magazine)
“Helluva addictive.” - Graham Goring (Graphic Artist)
“Very nice and professional looking,” “nicely polished.” - Stefan Drissen (Professional Coder)
Bowin and the Count Dracula
Submitted by solaris104 on Thu, 2006-02-09 21:56. Game
Booty
Submitted by solaris104 on Thu, 2006-02-09 21:52. Game
Phoenix Software Systems and later Persona
1995
Converted from the Spectrum version by John Cain
Review by Steven Pick from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
This has been written by the boys at Jupiter Software, and if the game sounds familiar to aged computer freaks - it should be! The SAM version is a conversion of the Spectrum classic, Booty, written by John Cain wayback 7 (or so) years ago. The game itself is set on a pirate ship, you playing a cabin hand set to nick all the pirates booty in a strange fit of generousity, and get off the ship!
The setup is that of a side on flip-screen platform, with the actual Spectrum version on the same disk! Anyway, it is obvious that the SAM version will benefit more in terms of graphics - and it does! The graphics were produced by Yours Truly, and help make the SAM version a nicer looking one (ahem!). But enough on the self-admiration stakes - the programming is what counts here! And the programmers have done an admirable job producing the set up which is faithful to the Spectrum version. All the touches from the Spectrum game are recreated faithfully on the SAM including animated portholes which capture the “feel” of the sea, and all the rooms of the SAM version match exactly to that of the Spectrum!
There are many dangers when collecting treasure on the ship, the first being of course, the pirates! They move along horizontal platforms, swords moving realistically and the speed of them moving is admirable (seeming this was written on SCADs!). Actually, the speed of the whole thing is rather impressive, with no slow down when there is plenty going on. Other dangers include the bombs which are hidden under certain treasure amounts, lifts - which are easier to get on and off than the Spectrum version, affecting the difficulty a tad, and the random dangers of birds and rats which suddenly appear from the edges of the screen and endanger your character. The SAM rat has changed from the Spectrum version, as it has become more intelligent. The Spectrum rat wouldn’t appear on screens with lifts, but the SAM rat jumps on the lifts and to lower platforms, increasing the danger! Hmmm, and I must add there is also an extra 10 screens worth of SAM Booty!!!
Boing!
Submitted by solaris104 on Thu, 2006-02-09 21:44. Game
1992
Boing’s time machine has crashed on a strange land and only by collecting 20 Potions, the Crystal, the Battery and the all-important lever will he ever get the time machine working again.
Your Sinclair review, courtesy of The YS Rock ‘n’ Roll Years.
Review by Steven Pick from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
Right! Hands up who thinks that Dizzy was (and still is) one of the most inspiring and brilliant character around? He had style, grace and personality. And yet, he was a bouncing egg with boxing gloves. But we love him, don’t we, readers? Apart from the people who dispise him appearing for the seventh time on the small screen. Now let’s take the SAM version of a new hero… A green blob.
Well, he bounces around a bit, but that’s about it. So, we have got ourselves a basic character of unDizzy status, but we shouldn’t write off the game due to this. But we are bound to have many people who will compare this to Dizzy on the Coupe, and for the moment it is the nearest thing to it. But at the same time, it’s not like that! The plot is usually a good laugh on the SAM, so take it away…
Collect three pieces of a time machine and 20 potions, then find the exit and escape from the crazy planet infested with nasties of varying weirdness.
We’ve seen it all before, eh? But this game is of an incredibly fun calibre in terms of playability. You control this blob (no name!) through a flip screen enviroment of well animated nasties bouncing on a set course. You have to pick up objects and use them on certain screens to achieve certain results. Aha! Just like Dizzy! The only real difference is the energy bar which is used instead of an “instant death” situation from the Dizzy games. This bar can also be refilled to it’s peak by hearts.
Parallax
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Thu, 2006-02-09 21:31. Game
1992
Shoot ‘em up in the mould of, well, a shoot ‘em up.
Horizontal Scrolling arcade action.
Exodus
Submitted by Dan Dooré on Wed, 2006-02-08 01:16. Game
1993
A game they said couldn’t be done; this sort of thing really should have been impossible…
Basically it’s like Smash TV on the Sam!
Shoot lots and lots (and lots) of enemies, collect power-ups and crisp packets, and advance screen-by-screen until you’ve beaten the big bad B.U.T.T. (Bugs Unified Terrorist Team).
Review by Graham Goring from the Sam Coupé Scrapbook
Exodus is quite an old game by now, it’s probably been knocking around for two, maybe three years and unlike a lot of SAM games it hasn’t dated that badly at all.
This is mainly due to Doug Holmes producing what where probably his best ever graphics and some very slick programming.
The game is basically a Smash TV rip-off, only minus the level structuring idea and without the organised enemy phases of the original. This is a bit of a pity as knowing what what going to happen next helped a LOT on the original game, and in this one you have NO chance at all because it throws everything at you on every level. There’s none of this ‘learning curve’ stuff, oh no. It’s hell-bent destruction from the first moment.
On each level you must collect five crisp bags to progress to the next one, and this is where it can be slightly annoying, in that some bags are impossible to reach (having been deposited in the enemy-producing holes at the edges of the screen, and it’s also annoying that it has a multiload for some reason. Even when each level is almost EXACTLY the same, maybe the mega-enemies deserve a multiload, but I think it was probably a move to keep 256k compatability.
Oh well.
In case you have never seen Smash TV, here is a brief description of this particular version of it:
The levels consist of a square room with about 6 entrances in the side from which enemies constantly pour. You must shoot the enemies to produce crisp bags and other bonuses, such as extra lives, and improved weapon power. When you’ve got all 5 crisp bags it’s onto the next level. Simple, but bloody hard. You really come to rely on getting extra-lives, because unless you get seriously massive quantities of them then you’re not going to survive the first 10 levels. It’s really a pity about the difficulty level, as the game has lot’s of nice bits, including a full disk intro sequence (though not to the standard of Steven Picks work), lovely music and simultaneous 2-player option. Anyway, it costs about 6 quid and can be bought from, um, well, it might be SAM PD (Derek Morgan), or it could be Phoenix Software Systems (David Ledbury) who knows? Licences on the SAM change ownership more often than I change my pants (so that’s about once every 6 months :) ).
