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Time to go gaga over some more Acorn Electron games...
...with Five Games Five Minutes from acornelectron.co.uk
REPTON 2 is the sequel to REPTON.
And it's the toughest game of all the famous REPTON series.
You're the green-skinned hero, on a quest to collect diamonds, ...
...smash open eggs and drop boulders on the monsters that hatch from them.
Additionally in REPTON 2, all of the maps of the game...
...are linked by transporters.
When you enter them, you are transported to a different area...
...of one huge maze.
The basic game though, is still the same.
The panel on the left of the playing area...
...shows you just how great the task ahead of you is.
1634 diamonds to collect, 4744 pieces of earth to collect, ...
...64 transporters to use, 18 monsters to kill...
...and 42 puzzle pieces to collect.
Only by doing all of this can you win.
Oh, and no maps for you either, just in case you thought that sounded too easy!
I don't know how many people have managed to plough through the whole game.
If you have bucket- loads of patience, ...
...then I can imagine it to be perhaps one of the most fantastic...
...challenges available for the Electron.
Mere mortals, who recognise that one false move destroys the whole game, ...
...might be less forgiving of it.
PLANETOID is one of the Acorn Electron versions of DEFENDER.
This one was released by Acornsoft.
And it's ridiculously difficult.
The DEFENDER-style game is no longer popular.
The idea is to shoot the green raiders...
...before they abduct the life- forms at the bottom of the screen.
If that explanation doesn't mean much to you, ...
...think ascending octopi, carrying a stalagmite.
Oh, alright, green blob carrying an L.
If the greeny gets to the top of the screen, ...
...that means trouble, because it mutates and it makes a beeline for your position.
You control a spaceship...
...and you increase and decrease your speed, ...
...blasting any greenies that get in your way.
There are other types of baddy too.
Truth be told, all of them are pretty difficult to avoid.
The problem with PLANETOID...
...is that, in addition, it's also very hard to blast them.
Sometimes your laser seems to sail right through them.
PLANETOID's not particularly addictive.
It's just too damned difficult to be worth playing for long.
If a greeny carries the last life- form to the top of the screen, ...
...you're unceremoniously wiped out by a small army of mutant greenies!
Hmmm.
THE ARGUMENT SKETCH is a Public Domain game...
...based on the Monty Python skit of the same name.
As games go, they don't get any more simple than this.
You have to move the joystick, or press the appropriate key, ...
...in the OPPOSITE direction of the man you are arguing with.
If he says "Yes it is!" then you need to answer "No it isn't!".
If he says "No it isn't!" then you need to answer "Yes it is!"
Wait too long and he'll ring the bell on the desk before him, ...
...shout "Thank you!" and your game is over.
Oh, and he'll do the same if you get it wrong.
Now obviously this is the type of game...
...which you can never really win.
The best I've done is a score of 380.
I should also declare an interest too.
Although I didn't write the original game, I did convert it to the Electron myself.
It's available on disc EUG 58.
Check it out!
When you get a title called ELECTRONIC COLOURING BOOK, ...
...you know what to expect, don't you?
A number of monochrome pictures which you can colour in.
A nice way to while away a bit of time.
There are 16 pictures in total, ...
...and these can be loaded in by pressing L and then typing the filename.
The game also lets you save pictures you may draw yourself.
In fact, the game saves every little move you make in memory.
So you can then save whatever state...
...you leave the drawing area in, by pressing S.
The pictures range in complexity...
...and have a number of themes.
You can play with them to your heart's content, ...
...erasing areas back to white by pressing D...
...and filling them with the currently- selected colour by pressing P.
To change to a different colour, just move your crosshair onto it.
And then move back to the drawing area.
The controls are a bit awkward...
...because you have to use the cursor keys...
...which are a bit too close to the BREAK key for my liking.
Especially in a game aimed at children!
Even though there's nothing particularly wrong with...
...ELECTRONIC COLOURING BOOK, I think the average child would find it a bit too fiddly.
Not recommended.
FRUIT CATCHER, written by Paul Branton, is without question, ...
...the best fruit machine game for the Electron.
It allows you to play a sophisticated fruit machine without spending any money.
And, let's face it - because all fruit machines are blatant rip-offs...
...masquerading as entertainment, that should be reason enough...
...to play a simulation instead of the real thing.
It's tempting to dive straight in to this game...
...without reading the instructions. Don't!!
It LOOKS simple, but it's actually surprisingly complicated.
The reels don't just contain fruit symbols...
...but also, in their top left-hand corner, numbers.
Each time you spin, the numbers are added up...
...and the Snapper feature on the right is activated.
In turn, this can fire the Gamble/Collect chain, ...
...or the Boost feature, ...
...or the Nudges and Holds, into life.
You need to know how to operate each one...
...to maximise your winnings.
What I really love about this game...
...is that it links the game SNAPPER, in which you collect fruit, ...
...with a FRUIT machine.
Quite genial, what?
It's also a brilliant game to boot.
Colourful, noisy and very playable.
However, make sure you load it on a real Electron.
It tends to be a bit tempremental under emulation.
Subtitles by Subtitle Workshop