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Game 2 – Highway Encounter – Vortex – Spectrum
I am a huge fan of all Costa Panayai’s early work, Android 2, Cyclone, TLL, Deflektor, all classics from the Spectrum era. However, Highway encounter was a league above the rest. It borrowed heavily from Ultimate’s Alien 8, not only with its isometric viewpoint, but the whole design of the graphics. The game involves directing a bunch of robots that are pushing a bomb to a target twenty screens away. Each screen has a puzzle of blocks and moving enemies, and it takes thought, and speed to avoid losing members of your robot team. Some of the screens are devilishly tough, but once the art of each screen is learned, the proceeding turns get easier. This slow drip feed of progress makes it one of the most rewarding games there is, and one of only a relatively small number which I played until I had finished. The final screen, with the aliens all crowded around the sides of the highway as the bomb heads for the mother ship, is something that those who’ve finished the game will never forget.
Game 3 – Software Star – Addictive – Spectrum & C64
I am a sucker for management strategy; it’s something I’ve raved about in the magazine for years, largely because, along with the text adventure, it’s something of a dead genre today. There are loads I’d like to include, Chris Sievey’s the Biz, Millionaire by Incentive, Kaiser by Ariolasoft. The one I’ve opted for is the long forgotten follow-up to Football Manager, Software Star by Kevin Toms. It’s incredibly simple, run a software house by making multiple choice decisions every month, then sit back and enjoy the reward as your games slowly push themselves up the charts.
Part of the enjoyment is naming your own games, and then releasing sequels in the following years. I’m sure it’s just random, but sequel titles do seem to generate additional sales for poorly programmed games. For some reason it’s always satisfying, having five games on sale, and getting them all in the top thirty. Watching each hot new title taking the place of the previous one. I realise that there aren’t many people out there who would rate this type of game at all, so rest assured I’m aware I’m quirky.
Game 4 - Forbidden Forest – Cosmi - Commodore 64
Cosmi’s Aztec Challenge was one of the first games to woo me away from my Spectrum back in the early eighties. Somehow there was a lot of atmosphere trapped inside the game, god knows how they put it in there, because on the face of it, it was a pretty frustrating and repetitive game. It certainly paled into insignificance compared to the atmosphere evoked by Cosmi’s next opus, Forbidden Forest.
Set in a forest (strangely), you play an archer who has to kill the creatures that live there before they kill him. These range from giant spiders and bouncing frogs through to evil bees and fire breathing dragons.
After each wave of nasties you do a little dance to celebrate your achievements, you’ll crave to hear that dancing tune again on later levels when it starts getting really tough. The last level features the Ghost Demogorgon, who is only visible when lightning strikes. Surely it’s the most terrifying final level of the whole 8-bit era. The amazing this is, for me at least, the game is still just as terrifying today. I really can’t see why there is so much atmosphere in the game, perhaps the programmer was possessed or something.
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