Producer: Central Solutions
Retail Price: £0.99
Author: G.A. Holmes

This arcade game follows the explorations of a fearless little chappy towards a mysterious volcano. He must use his skill and judgement to navigate his way around the screens, picking up the coloured music notes as he goes. Each different screen must be cleared of notes before he can progress to the next one.

The caped hero stomps around the bottom of the screens, leaping into the air when necessary. In order to collect some objects, he must leap from platform to platform - not that straightforward as some of the levels move to and fro. Accurate timing is essential if our hero is not to tumble to his death.

One of his nine lives is lost each time the hero encounters a blazing cross or stumbles over a tombstone. He has unlimited energy, but must avoid the nasties to stay alive.

COMMENTS

Control keys: P start/pause, SPACE jump, Q left, W right
Joystick: no
Keyboard play: not bad, considering it's the only option you've got
Use of colour: quite a bit of colour clash
Graphics: less than reasonable
Sound: the occasional bleep
Skill levels: one
Screens: fifteen

Gosh! Another Manic Miner clone! The graphics are pretty much the standard issue for budget games - a couple of nice characters, little flicker and lots of colour clash. Sound is minimal with only a few spot effects. Not exactly an original piece of software this but for its price one can't really grumble.

The whole look of this game gives you a sense of very simple programming. The colour is well used and everything fits into its own little L.D.G. space perfectly. If you look at A Trick Of The Tale as a sixty pence blank tape and a forty pence game, then you can't go far wrong!

The graphics are less than reasonable and the sound is limited to the occasional bleeps and burps. To begin with, this looks as if it could prove addictive, but after a few goes it's very frustrating. Even at ninety-nine pence, this is not a game I would recommend.

Central Solutions
99p

I never liked the Genesis album. And I didn't like the game. Central specialises in budget games but you can take the budget bit too far.

For a start, it's a Manic Miner - collect the musical notes, avoid the sprites, jump the platforms. Still one of the best games anyone ever designed. But this particular example has a poxy 15 screens, flickery sprites, attribute problems and very little content.

In emergencies, when there's nothing else to say about a game, you can usually describe the contents of each of the screens. Umm, my attempts at mapping consist solely of On Route To Volcano... leads to... ZX Basic. Ooops. Central can do better than this. And so can you.

Label: Central Solutions
Author: Greg Holmes
Price: £0.99
Memory: 48K
Reviewer: Jerry Muir

1. This is a a) budget game; b) normal price; c) vastly overpriced: [c]

2. It is a) wholly original; b) slightly similar to something else; c) yet another Manic Miner clone: [c]

3. It has a) lots of screens; b) lots and lots of screens; c) lots and lots and lots of screens; d) only 15 screens: [d]

4. Which will a) test you beyond endurance; b) take months to complete; c) be a blessed relief: [c]

5. There are a) lots of controls; b) no controls; c) three controls: [c]

6. Which will make it ideal for a) people with lots of fingers; b) people who are into pretentiously conceptual games - Hi. Mel; c) people whose keyboards no longer work very well: [c]

7. My reaction was a) amazement; b) apathy; c) Zzzzz! [c]

8. Don't delay - buy a) a copy; b) two copies; c) a copy of Manic Miner: [c]