Reviews

1984 Bug Byte (UK)
by David Turner

What happens when you don't get the deserved payment for your job? You start stealing cars from your filthy rich arab boss, Sheikh Abdul Al Kohol (Alcohol, get it?)!
Well Mic Mechanic, who is the sheiks mechanic man is fed up with it, so he gathers a plan to rob all the Sheikhs cars!
The Sheikh finds out and sends a couple of his personal guards to spoil Mic's plans.

Well, I always both loved and hated this game, just because it was so difficult. Jumping on springs and climb on ropes can be very irritating. I think the game is impossible to complete without infinite lives, specially in the later levels, mainly because of the unpredictable movements of the Arabs or even the height of the jump you get from the springs, which can be very random. In spite this, and although not one of the prettiest games around, it's still quite fun to escape the Arabs and to see if the next car is different.

It has some similarities to Automania or vice-versa (they are both from 1984) but Turmoil is a lot better!

Gameplay: 4.50
Graphics and sound: 3

I never liked this game too much, and that's not because of the horrid rendition of the theme from Bizet's Carmen playing in the background, or at least not only for that. Yes, some of the screens are quite devious and require a considerable amount of strategical planning to be solved, but as a whole I find it somewhat derivative and formulaic.

Ah, Turmoil. An absolute, bona-fide classic. A Crash-Smash, this is a devious single screen platform game a la Manic Miner. It is _much_ harder than Manic Miner later on. This is the kind of game that you can complete now due to snapshots, but back in the day - no chance, unless you were Julian Rignall. There are 26 screens, all given a level with a letter from the alphabet. There is no jump action, just up, down, left, right and activate oil can (or pick up / put down item.) It reminds me of a cross between Donkey Kong / Manic Miner / Jet Set Willy, as it features elements from all three games, but preceded Jet Set I think. Another reviewer has mentioned about how hard it was to time jumps onto the springs, and that is fair comment, it can be very hard to get it right, and when the bad guys are chasing you and it has to be right or you will die, it can be very frustrating. In fact, the gameplay can be rewarding but it is a very high difficultly level right from the early screens. It is worth perservering though. As you progress through the game, dripping oil through a grid to form the vehicle, so many drops are needed to successfully form the vehicle and progress to the next level, the level designs become more difficult, and judicious use of oil as a hazard to kill a nasty (albeit temporarily) is needed. It does have quite a lot of substance to the gameplay once you start to see some of the subtleties in it. You can turn the in game music off if you like, but as I say, this is a game that has really come into its own with emulation and snapshots, because now you can get to play all the levels by saving. I won't tell you what happens after completing the last level, level Z, but you probably will be disappointed. I expect that the author, David Turner, never expected anyone to get that far. It is a brilliant game though, if I compiled a top ten Spectrum games of all time it would most definitely be in it, it is something both different and yet immediately recognisable as a platform game. The closest equivalent on the C64 would probably be something like Bounty Bob Strikes Back, another classic. The graphics are very good too, with no end of variety in the solid brick designs utilised, and for me, although another reviewer slated the in game music, it provides a ryhthym almost to playing the game. I don't know what David Turner went on to do after this game, nothing on the Spectrum it appears, but no matter because he left us with an all time great, very much underrated when compared to other classics like Manic & Jet Set. This was in my opinion superior to them technically, and I love it and have completed it several times. Controls are good and responsive and a standard keyboard layout means you can play it instantly. I would have loved to see a sequel with a Willy style flick screen play area. Oh well. David Turner - take a bow.

In all the single screen platform games that followed Manic Miner into the Spectrum cannon, only one surpassed it. It was Turmoil, and it was a better game because it reached a brand new technical level of achievemnet, delivered perfectly, that few attempted to emulate in the years that followed - namely free roaming baddies who bounced on trampettes, climbed ladders and swung on ropes, and the conveyer belts you sped up along, just as you could. This alone + the oil you could drop for them to slip on, made Turmoil the madcap game its title promised it to be, a comic chase and evade game that often mixed the need for frantic evasive action with precision platforming.
It was a mix that defied the gamers who make progress by learning enemy patterns and weren't prepared to live by their wits. Every attempt at Turmoil will be different to the last.
That the screen designs are genius is a bonus.
That the game is also a massive task to complete gives it true longevity. Turmoil is only 26 screens but it is a true challenge to play right through it.
The review on this site by 'The Law' is absolutely right.

Above average 1984´s production ...

The plot is quite original but the goal is not so clear ...

Worth a try !!


3,5 out of 5 .

I was aware of the existence of Turmoil, and i might even had a pirate copy on a G.B.Max tape, but i never really played it. being a prominent 1984's game, according to WoS ratings [8.31 from 76 votes as for today], and 5 reviews in Spectrum 2.0 [two with the maximum score], i decided to try it almost immediately in my quest for lost [for me] 1984's games. and i quite hate it.
It's ok, but it doesn't convince me. The tune is a brutal rendition of a classical piece or two, the sprites compete for the Most Flickering Ever title [plus a good amount of colour clash], and playability is ok, not fantastic. I don't like being chased by arabs. Not only by arabs. But now i hate arabs because of this game. It's not fast enough, a game in which you're chased should be faster, just like Lode Runner, which is far better than Turmoil - it gives you really the opportunity to mock your enemies and the feel of quickness, agility, you feel able to do exciting things. not in turmoil - in spite of some acrobatic stunts. By the way, it's a platform game, with ladders, trampolines and swinging ropes, you must fill a can with oil and make your car start. The spring of the trampolines goes up and down, and needs the right timing to be used, which seems impossibile to guess if not by chance, which makes this thing out of control, and that's not very good when you're running away from some manic muslims. [christians are crazy too]. No more than sufficiency to me.