Producer: CCS
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £4.95
Author: M. Sherlock

CCS have produced a series of games aimed at the young female market. I must confess to being dubious of both the concept and the market that exists for such software. There again, remember Cabbage Patch dolls?

You begin with a choice between three levels which is unusual for an adventure game - Impossible, Hard or Easy. I started out with the first option, Impossible, no sexism implied I hope.

Your quest is to find four keys and make your way to the golden palace where the diamond treasure is to be found. You begin in the Desolate Lands and it comes as something of a surprise to find the wooden key in the first scene, and further, to be attacked by a hulk in a game one assumed to be at least only moderately violent. On going into battle with the hulk I was quickly and unceremoniously killed. Where it says impossible you'd be wise to take this literally. So much for the macho stance - let's try Easy.

You find yourself this time in the wood where again we find the wooden key straight away but it is much easier to fight the foe at this level - in this case a pack of marauding lions is easily dealt with. Go north and you are at The Volcano, where you are attacked by some tribes - men, but what is this? - the golden key. This game seems incredibly easy: only two scenes and I have two of the four keys already! This is, I take, no comment on a girl's ability to play adventure games. The tribesmen are easily disposed of and travelling north we enter The Foothills, find some lunch and are attacked by some blood-thirsty bats. I eat the food and my energy goes up.

Diamond Quest has a rather lurid pink cover with 'Games for Girls' firmly embossed on the front. The game seems to have little that might appeal to a girl and were it even aimed at a more general market it could be described as positively violent as hardly a scene goes by without an attack emanating from one quarter or another. The graphics are very simple chiefly as a result of the author limiting himself to the 21 user-defined graphics. The plot is unimaginative and uses no detailed descriptions; there is no sense of mystery to retain interest for any length of time.

The level 3 option, Impossible, would seem superfluous as it is no misnomer. Every time you visit a location - even if one you've visited previously - you are confronted by a combatant whose fighting skills and initial energy points would seem to bear little relation to their expected prowess. Are fleas as deadly as lions? The game makes a poor adventure as there is a conspicuous lack of problems to solve and the fight sequences allow no room for thoughtful interaction. Did the male author of this software really design it for a feminine audience?

It would seem likely CCS contrived to aim this program at its limited market for the simple reason that it is not of sufficiently high calibre to be judged on its own merits. As a marketing ploy it is more likely to alienate the boys.

GAMES FOR GIRLS - SLOW, SIMPLE AND PATRONISING

HICKSTED/MATHSTED
Memory: 48K
Price: £5
Joystick: Kempston

DIAMOND QUEST
Memory: 48K
Price: £5

JUNGLE ADVENTURE
Memory: 48K
Price: £6

The first three in a series of Games for Girls promised by CCS do not augur well for the rest of the line. Apart from a tenuous link with show jumping in one game, and a heroine rather than a hero in another, it is difficult to see where the special appeal for the female half of the cassette-buying public lies, unless simplicity and slowness are intended to be the main selling-point.

The intentions of CCS in producing the series may have been well-meaning but the overall quality of the games and the patronising tone of the inserts could lay the company open to charges of sexism.

Hicksted is designed as a simulation of a show jumping event but neither the graphics nor the laborious question-and-answer process which has to take place before the game can start convey any sense of excitement. The control keys are placed awkwardly and a great deal of practice is needed before the path of the horse loses its resemblance to a bull on the rampage rather than a well-trained steed.

The second side of the Tape offers a mathematical version which is a good deal more entertaining than the original, since the primitive graphics and movement do not matter so much. The object is to take the jumps by answering mathematics questions correctly; you can choose to be tested on multiplication, division, addition and subtraction, with several levels of difficulty for each. A time factor adds a challenge and the game provides an effective form of maths drill.

The insert for Diamond Quest makes the dubious claim that the colourful graphics and absence of monsters make it specially suitable for girls. In fact it is a straightforward graphics adventure, in which the object is to collect four keys and find your way to a Golden Palace where a treasure is to be found. On your way you encounter unpleasant creatures such as a hulk, some bloodthirsty bats, wild lions and swarming mosquitoes, and you can replenish your strength by eating food or booking into a hotel.

The game features simple one-character commands, a variety of locations which have little to distinguish them from each other apart from their names, and a series of battles which take the form of your enemy's energy level and your own ticking away numerically before your eyes.

There are several levels of difficulty and if you have never played an adventure game previously, the ease of movement from one scenario to another might prove an attractive introduction to the genre.

In other respects the game does not have the sophistication or mind-taxing qualities of many other adventures on the market.

Jungle Adventure features Bobo, a young African girl making her way from school to her home in the jungle. The game starts at school, where Bobo must try to win prizes such as an egg, a hamburger, a coconut or a book with which she will later bribe the creatures she meets in the jungle. The prizes are won by a Mastermind-style guessing game which, although scarcely original, is entertaining.

The second stage of the game, in which Bobo must make her way past a variety of creatures which become visible only when she bumps into them, is less successful, especially as the placing of the keys makes it extremely difficult to complete the journey. An unfortunate slip by which Bobo is referred to as he rather than she when she falls into the lake is in this context a serious fault.

GAMES FOR GIRLS

Hold on while I change out of my garter belt to write this review, readers! Two games, Jungle Adventure and Diamond Quest come under the collective title of Games for Girls and were written by M. Sherlock and B. Bartis who could be male or female for all I know.

Keith passed on these games to me to review at a party he held to celebrate the launch of his book. Feeling rather upset at such a slur on my masculinity, I trotted round to my friend Julian Crouch, to have a look at them.

I have to mention Julian because he it is who has a Spectrum, on which they run, but more importantly, because I have recently discovered he is related to the Editor and I want to keep this job!

From reading the cassette inlays, I had an idea that these games might be bad. "We think (Diamond Quest) will particularly appeal to girls because the graphics are bright and colourful, and monsters do not appear!" Ten out of ten for the most patronising blurb and worst looking inlay - who wants to look at a pink inlay with animals in pastel colours?

The first game we tried was Jungle Adventure. You are cast as an African girl who must make her way home from school. Home is in the middle of the jungle.

Words fail me at this point! It is the most boring Spectrum game I have ever played. It isn't an Adventure, it isn't an arcade game - what it is I'll never know!

The second tape was Diamond Quest, which is much better and seems to have been well thought out. Even so, the game has a vocabulary of precisely 14 words! Watch out, Infocom!

The idea behind this game is to try to find the diamond treasure which is hidden in a palace. The graphics are quite good, but again, to call this an Adventure is a gross over-statement. It is merely a maze game. So, I think I'll stick to my knitting!

Games for Girls come from Laser Computer Simulations Ltd, for the 48k Spectrum, and cost £5.95 and £4.95 respectively.

WELL-WORN THEMES RE-APPEAR

The trend in software production appears to be to take stock, build on successful ideas and await new developments. New games tend to be new variations on well-worn themes rather than startlingly original concepts. The number of games based on the premise that all computer owners love shooting as many things as possible is decreasing and giving way to games which need thought and strategy as well as fast reactions.

Unfortunately for ZX-81 owners, although their computer has remained consistently among the top five bestselling computers, new software for the ZX-81 is almost non-existent and W H Smith is not intending to accept any new ZX-81 software for sale in its shops. Due to the shortage of new software, no ZX-81 programs have been received for review this month.

CCS has begun its Games for Girls series with three games for the 48K Spectrum. Hicksted, a simulation of a show jumping event; Diamond Quest, which is a straightforward adventure; and Jungle Maze, in which prizes are won with a Mastermind-style guessing game which is fun, although unoriginal. Apart from a tenuous link with show jumping in one game and a heroine rather than a hero in another, it is difficult to see in what way CCS has changed its strategy to aim it at females rather than males.

Computers are bound to affect everyone's future in some way, so encouraging more people to use and understand them is a worthwhile project.

To attempt to increase a software company's market vastly by selling to women is unlikely to succeed unless the software market is changed substantially.