by Greg A. Holmes, John Holmes
Mr. Greg A. Holmes, taking a break from Gremlin Graphics, and Mr. John Holmes, taking a break from the pornographic industry, penned this universally panned budget game[*] under the label Central
Solutions.
[*] 5/10 from both Your Sinclair and Crash
But to say the truth, it's not that bad, it's a maze game with neat and colourful graphics, in which you are driving a tank picking up pieces of something spreaded through various flip-screen rooms teeming with other tanks and lethal crabs. You have some bullets too, but you'd better spare them for the most difficult times because they're counted, and, anyway, shooting the enemy is not always the best choice, because they reappear immediately, and you could be right over their reappearance spot. Playability is okayish, although you can die with irritating frequency, even for some debatable reasons, for example, you may be ahead of a tank following you, but making a 90° turn [into what may be your only escape route], it will reach you, touching you a corner pixel of your shape. Also, it's rather easy to fall into little rivers crossing the screens and die. So, be very attentive to where you put your pixels. Anyway, contrary to the esteemed magazines cited above, I don't consider this little game insufficient.
3/5
Review by YOR on 22 Nov 2017 (Rating: 2)
Written by Greg Holmes in his pre-Gremlin days, I found this to be underwhelming. The graphics are up there with Greg's other games which is no surprise, but the gameplay was lacking for me somewhat. Maybe if I was younger and had more patience I'd enjoy this more.
1986 Central Solutions (UK)
by Greg & John Holmes
Another maze game. This time you control a tank. It reminds me of an obscure arcade game, which was highly addictive, even if it looked rather primitive. You control your tank, he shoots and drops bombs, you move around in this maze collecting objects, some with different abilities.
I didn't enjoy it much, enemies direction changing is too rapid and unpredictable and they "reborn" after being shot and always in the same place. This adds difficulty to the game which may be a good thing, but doesn't make the game pleasant.
