Biggles
(Mirrorsoft, 1986)
Reviewed by Pug

Jim Biggles, the brother of the famous World War I fighter pilot, learns of a German secret weapon that could change the course of history. He travels back to warn Biggles – and so the adventure begins. There are two parts to this game, the second part requiring a password. The first part is split into three mini-games. In the first one, you pilot your aircraft along a scrolling playfield. The other two are flip-screen affairs involving shooting, long jumps and avoiding guards. The MODE 0 graphics vary between games, but carry an overall moderate standard. An interesting tune plays upon loading with good in-game effects.

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7

Play the hero within a movie as the audience watches! This consists of various stages or movies, such as taking part in a western shoot-'em-up, being trapped in a maze, and the final showdown beat-'em-up, etc. It delivers an odd but appealing challenge where each level is a totally different game style, so it never gets boring and it has that "just one more go" addictiveness. All the graphics are in MODE 0 and vary between games, but overall, they maintain an average standard. Sound-wise, it's imaginative and also includes digitised speech during the game. It's a brave attempt at mixing different games into one box – even if the third 'film' has some dodgy collision detection.

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6

Sam Spillade is a private investigator working in 1930s New York – although he isn't particularly clever or successful. At the start of the game, Sam is given two cases to solve, and as Sam, you must travel around New York in your wreck of a car to find clues and follow up any leads. This three-part text adventure was created using The Quill and contains some very well-written text that sets the atmosphere nicely – although there are also some sexual innuendos that I didn't like much. You'll need to read the text carefully, as it reveals clues to where you need to go next. Some locations are also accompanied by pictures. However, there are a few problems with the parser, and the need to be at some locations at particular times in order to solve some puzzles makes this a rather difficult and sometimes frustrating adventure.

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7

Barney is a circus performer who needs your help to complete a series of events and please the public. Each level involves circus themes which require skill and timing. There are four levels – tightrope, unicycle, balloons and trampolines. Each has its own charm and hazards – some have more of the latter than others. The graphics are average and collision detection is tight. A pleasant tune plays and old-fashioned sound effects reign supreme. It's a blatant clone of the arcade game Circus Charlie, and done via a Commodore 64 conversion.

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5

Based on the fairly low-key film of the same name, this is a strange and unexciting little game where the aim is to walk through China's streets, sewers and temples, before taking out the mini-bosses (the 'Storms', for those who have seen the film) and finally the end boss, and rescue the kidnapped girl. There are three interchangeable characters – Jack Burton (an American trucker), some kung fu expert, and Egg Shen (a wizard on a floating cloud). Although the game is unbelievably short, it makes up for this in its difficulty – if one of your three characters dies, you can kiss goodbye to finishing the game. This is never more frustrating than in the sewers, where you just cannot avoid the sewer monsters! The graphics are awful, and the characters move like they're made of wood. Not a terrible game, just really boring.

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5

Billy is a streetwise suburban guy ("la banlieue" is French for "the suburbs", by the way), and this is a platform game in which Billy has to explore the suburbs, meet other people on the streets, and find the right objects to give to them. The graphics are superb, especially when you consider when this game was released. However, it is let down by the controls; getting Billy to jump over gaps is often very frustrating indeed, and you'll often need to position him precisely to climb walls and reach other platforms – and on that point, if you're going to play it, please note that you cannot walk past stairs!

See also: Billy 2.

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5

Are you a sharp shooter like Billy? This game has three parts to it – target practice where you shoot tin cans and bottles, an escape from a bank where you shoot all the enemies while avoiding the civilians, and a showdown at high noon which really tests your reflexes; shoot the enemy cowboy within a second or die. Each level consists of these three parts, so they all contain the same thing – not that you'll get past the second level, because the score you have to achieve is unreasonably large. The Spectrum-like graphics don't help either, but I suppose it's OK if you want a quick test of your agility.

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5

One of Billy's rivals, Ricky Le Tétard, is trying to win the affections of his girlfriend Lily. Billy must impress her by beating up Ricky's mates and completing four different arcade games successfully. You begin the game with $200, and you can use this money to play the arcade games and restore your energy by inserting your money into chewing gum dispensers (!). The arcade machines are scattered around the town, and each one plays a different game which you must master. Completing all four games provides you with a code so that you can 'phone your girlfriend and prove your worthiness to her. Unlike its predecessor, Billy 2 doesn't involve much in the way of thinking. The graphics are nice enough, but the area you can explore is fairly small and a couple of the arcade games are quite frustrating to play and rely a lot more on luck than skill to complete.

See also: Billy la Banlieue.

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4

This game, when released, would have been an acceptable offering to your collection as the CPC was still relatively new. You play the part of Binky, who has to paint the floors of all 21 storeys of a hazardous building. Binky is the only one who can change this by simply moving along the floor and painting it as he goes. Very dated sound effects mix with basic-looking visuals. It's odd to see the nasties falling to their deaths as they move randomly, although there are homing beach balls on later levels.

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4

Some time ago, aliens laid waste to your planet, and now they've built a huge weapon to destroy all life on the planet. It's up to you to make your way to the missile silo and deactivate the weapon before it's too late. When you first play this game, you'll think you're using a Spectrum. The graphics are truly appalling – some of the worst ever seen on a CPC! In fact, the game comes in versions for colour and green screen monitors – not that there is much difference between the two. As for the sound, there's no tune and the effects are useless. Despite this, it's still OK to play, although the game is somewhat dull and uninspiring.

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5