Producer: Mikrogen
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code

Pat has to collect parcels from the houses and take them to the post office. When he has enough, he must put them on the train. Sounds easy?

There are twelve houses in the town, but not every house has a parcel for collection. Fortunately this game is in no way a simulation of real life, for if Pat attempts to collect a parcel from a house that hasn't got one, the post office promptly, and inexplicably, bursts into flames. Pat must then dash to the fire station and get a fire engine. If he's in time the conflagration is put out and work resumes as normal.

Depending on the selected skill level Pat must collect either three or five parcels before they go on the train. To make matters worse, there are two red cars driving around the streets like maniacs, and with a nasty tendency of homing in on Pat while he's on his rounds.

COMMENTS

Control keys: cursors
Joystick: AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: poor responses
Colour: good
Graphics: above average
Sound: not much, but strong when it does
Skill levels: 2
Lives: 3
Screens: 1

It takes a few attempts to work out what to do, since there are no on-screen instructions or advice, and nothing on the cassette inlay, not even the control keys. These turn out to be the cursors, always a poor arrangement, but made worse here by the poor responsiveness. Postman Pat is quite a good game for younger age groups, but will probably appeal to all. It soon becomes easy and this reduces its addictiveness.

The graphics are fair and would be better if smoother or slightly bigger, but it does make for a lively screen. The game is a good idea, can be fun to play, and would be better still if it were more responsive. Sometimes you press a key and nothing happens, except a car running into you. For the younger player mostly.

This is a little confusing at first, as there are no instructions as to the aim of the game, but as you get the hang of it, it turns out to be fun to play. What spoils it are the control keys and the program's response to them. Moderately addictive for some, no doubt, but after a while it began to lose interest for me. Perhaps more objectives would have helped, and different skill levels with different problems to overcome, although I must admit, I never really discovered what the black objects that popped up occasionally on the roads were or what they did.

The concept of this game is simple; all the player has to do is to help Pat - the amnesiac postman - collect parcels from various houses and take them to the Post Office.

Peter: Good colour, bad graphics and very slow. But the worst part about this game is the lack of instructions, which makes it a bit difficult to find out what's going on.

Stewart: Simple block graphics and average use of colour are the extent of this game's presentation.

Ryan: Definitely not one of Mikro-Gen's best efforts. There are much better games around for the money.

Producer: Mikrogen, 48K
£5.95 (2)

Pat must collect parcels from the houses, take them to the post office, and when he has enough, put them on the train. The town contains 12 houses, a fire station and the post office. Only some houses (varies from game to game) have parcels for collection and if Pat visits any wrong ones, the post office promptly catches fire. He must then dash to the fire station, get the fire engine and douse the blaze before it all burns down. Two red cars travel the town's roads tyring to catch Pat. There are no instructions on game objectives, the graphics are fair but could be smoother and the control keys are the awkward cursors - joystick: Protek or AGF, not very responsive in either case. 2 skill levels, 3 lives. CRASH overall rating 52%.