Producer: Firebird
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: Steve Marsden and Dave Cooke

The strange saga of Ted Blewitt continues on from Hewson's Technician Ted in Firebird's Costa Capers.

With all the hard work that poor little prole Ted had to go through at the Chip Factory he's decided that it's time for a rest. Just like every other Trevor, Russell and Sharon, Ted plumps for a good time in sunny Spain on a package holiday. He's packed all the items he needs for a really good time in the sun. Unluckily though, some nasty person has used five fingered discount to 'buy' all of Ted's luggage, including his camera. Gosh, the chaps at work would never believe that Ted had been off to Spain without a set of snaps to prove it. There's no way he's going to get to Spain anyway, without his passport and luggage.

The main problem about retrieving his lost property is that Ted finds himself in a very strange environment indeed. The inhabitants of the area are most peculiar types. Quite a few of the usually passive items of Ted's luggage have burst into dangerous animation, to make things worse. Ted has to retrieve his luggage, take 36 snapshots of the Iberian countryside and then get back home in time to start work again at the Chip Factory with all three dozen holiday pits duly developed.

Ted is jolly little character, looking exactly the same as he did in his last incarnation and he can move left and right and sproing into the air. The background Ted leaps about on is organised into screens and if Ted goes of the edge of a screen another flips into view. A status area underneath the main display section helps you keep track of the variables that playing Costa Capers requires you to juggle with. Four histograms represent Ted's intoxication level, hangover strength, degree of sunburn and energy level.

There's an awful lot of drink hanging around the place, and getting drunk is not as pointless and stupid as it is in real life: in Costa Capers having a quick razzle with a can of lager can actually be a bit of a benefit, providing the extra 'Dutch Courage' to get past a few of the normally impassable meanies.

Of course getting a bit wobbly legged does have its disadvantages - one of them is losing the ability to walk properly. This is where the hangover meter comes in. Drinking lager does have one positive effect: cools Ted down during the day, stopping the sun-burn-ometer from rising too high. Collecting a Parasol keeps the sun off his back. If you allow Ted to get too drunk, too sunburnt or give him too great a hangover, his performance suffers.

To complete Costa Capers you need to collect objects to enable you to collect other objects, that enable you to collect others... and so on ad inifinitum, well almost. A money meter shows how much loot Ted has collected and he needs money to buy back some of his property. Collecting certain artefacts can cause problems, as removing an item may have a strange effect in another place, 'due to some shift in the fabric of time in some other dimension'.

Up to eight objects can be carried at a time, and they are displayed in a scrolling window in the status area. If you drop an object in the path of a mobile nasty, it is lost for ever as the sprite steals it and refuses to hand it back until you start a new game. Time passes rapidly, and the game has to be completed so Ted can be back at work when the holiday fortnight ends. Rather than lose lives as a result of collisions with mobiles, Ted loses time - each mini-death costs him an hour.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q left, W right, Z-M jump, S-G drop item, H-L pick up item, A pause, ENTER to start/toggle tune
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor, Interface 2
Keyboard play: no problems
Use of colour: quite pretty
Graphics: some interesting nasties
Sound: smashing tune at the start, otherwise usual effects
Skill levels: one
Screens:

As platform games go, Costa Capers really is quite reasonable, though a little bit too difficult. It's also a bit too derivative as well - it's very nearly Technician Ted. It's a shame about the graphics since, unlike TT when it came out, they really do look a bit ancient. Still very impressive though, is the smoothness of all the characters jetting about the screen. Even though I like platform games I still found Costa Capers just a bit too hard to be enjoyable. Real pros may think differently.

I was expecting a real advance on Technician Ted with this one, and boy, was I wrong, if anything, it's a step backwards. The graphics are neat, and it's quite a good game, but there is so much potential unrealised, that it's a real disappointment. At the time, TT was the joint second highest game ever rated in CRASH, but I can't see Costa Capers repeating that feat. Some of the problems are quite difficult, but this serves to be frustrating rather than adding to the game. For the high price asked, I can't madly recommend Costa Capers, except to those who were mega-fans of the original.

I certainly wasn't expecting another Technician Ted when I loaded this game up, but that's what I got. This sort of game is fairly dated now, so why on earth have Firebird included Costa Capers in their new Hot Range? The graphics are about average for this type of game: your character is very small but adequately animated and the other characters are large and usually well detailed. The sound is fair but nothing to write home about. There are many nice touches included in this one, but they weren't enough to keep me playing. This game is so like many others and contains nothing I haven't seen before somewhere else. If you were mad keen on Technician Ted perhaps it will appeal to you, but there are loads of good arcade/ adventures around for much less than Costa Capers.

Firebird Software
£7.95

Call this a holiday? It's more like a nightmare!

Poor ol' Ted has lost all his luggage on his way to Spain, and he's first got to find his credit card and then buy back all his belongings... especially his camera so that he can take snapshots to show his workmates back home. Drinking cans of lager help him in difficult moments... but a drunken Ted is not easy to control, and the hangover's even worse!

At first sight, Costa Capers really looks the biz. Modelled on Jet Set Willy, there are loads of screens cluttered with various nasties as well as useful items, such as parasols to keep the sun off. Trouble is, you can't tell which objects are useful to pick up and which ones kill you - you often just have to lose a life to find out and then remember which objects to avoid. The programmers have also opted to include the 'die for ever'syndrome from JSW, in which you keep falling through screens to your death. (If you get as bored as I do with this, an undocumented tip is to press the Break key and return to the beginning.)

Another little tip is to switch off the accompanying theme music as soon as you can - playing Costa Capers with the plaintive strains of Viva Espana in the background is no fun at all!

Overall, the idea of Costa Capers is an awful lot better than its execution.

Publisher: Firebird
Programmers: Marsden/Cook
Price: £7.95
Memory: 48K
Joystick: Kempston

With your ears ringing with the unlikely, burbling beeps of Viva L'Espagne, you start off on what promises to be a horrific holiday in the land of the matadors.

It is set in a Manic Miner format - even down to the minute sketchy graphics. You play Ted Blewitt proving to his work mates that he has actually crossed the channel for his holiday.

Ted has to find his camera, with his lost luggage, take 36 snaps and have them developed before the end of his month off.

The clock ticks away, Ted skurries around through day and night and the screen turns blue and black accordingly. Other than a whole series of lifts and ladders to leap onto, objects to avoid and others to pick up, you have to watch for the hazards of sunburn and too much booze.

If you get drunk, you may suffer a brain-numbing hangover or strange side effects. To keep an eye out for those disasters, a grid at the bottom of the screen shows drunk hangover and sunburn ratings. Points are scored for the money you've got.

As your wallet has disappeared you must find a credit card, on the second Screen, and there is a small amount of hopping and dodging before you can reach it. Beware Sir Clive's specs - they meander around the screen in an aimless fashion. If touched they send you back to the beginning of the screen.

If you manage to avoid gulping down a can of lager on the first screen there seems to be one less hazard on the second. After you've picked up your flexible friend, then you may have a pint - if the specs haven't nicked it first.

The lifts are everywhere and can be tricky to step on to. You may need to jump lifts to one carrying you in the opposite direction in order to leap onto another level. Some ladders will allow you to climb in one direction only - up. If you make a mistake and climb too far - you'll have to fall off and try again.

The most irritating feature occurs if you mistime a leap and fall a fair distance. You get action replay of your fall six or seven times. And there's absolutely nothing you can do to halt it.

How can Firebird put such a game into its new Hot range? it has produced better in the Silver range for a fraction of the price.

In any case, didn't Melbourne House use the idea of taking holiday snaps in Terrormolinos? The authors, Steve Marsden and Dave Cook, score zero for originality.

MACHINE: Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Firebird
PRICE: £7.95

Platform games live on - quite why nobody seems to know. Still, Costa Capers is brought to you by the team who produced last year's platform hit, Technician Ted, Steve Marsden and David Cooke.

It follows the fortunes of Ted - who this time is trying to get away for his annual fortnight in the sun.

In order to enjoy his holiday, it is first necessary to locate his possessions, particularly his trusty Brownie Box camera complete with 36 exposures...

His workmates however, will not believe that Ted's been on holiday to Spain unless he can show them his holiday snaps. Trouble is the camera went walkies with the rest of his luggage.

Ted starts with no money, and so, as each item has a price, a credit card would be quite useful. Ted may carry up to eight items at any one time, so be sure to choose carefully before you buy!

Objects may be dropped, but if Ted drops something in the path of an animated character, the character will pick up that object and it will be lost from the current game forever. Be careful!

If you're one of the few remaining people who still like playing antique games - or wish JSW was still the best game on the Spectrum - then you'll probably enjoy Costa Capers.

Firebird
£7.95

Costa Capers is the kind of platform game that will either rivet you to the screen or drive you away jabbering hysterically.

Ted Blewitt sets off on a disastrous holiday to sunny Spain and the first thing that happens is that he loses his luggage and money. But the biggest blow is the loss of his Brownie box camera with 36 holiday snaps on film.

So Ted has to retrieve all his possessions but the items and characters he encounters may help him - alternatively they may not.

An important element in Ted's jaunt is his alcohol intake, massive consumption of lager is likely to render him incapable of some tasks, but on the other hand it's essential to be semi-plastered for others.

Once an item has been collected it can radically effect items in other locations. Don't, whatever you do let another character stumble on a collected item as it will be taken out of the game never to be seen again until a restart.

The changing variables in the game where items can alternate between hostility and usefulness can be extremely frustrating but of course to tho seasoned platformer this sort of whimsy is a challenge to be relished.