Hunchback havoc

A commercial game program written in TI BASIC.

Released by Lantern Software on cassette tape.

With this game you move your man around the screen firstly putting out fires- you may need to unlock some doors, and can only carry EITHER a key OR a fire extinguisher. Once all the fires are out, some gems appear for you to collect and then beat a retreat to screen right before time runs out. You start with 300 time units. For increased game speed this is updated only once in each screen., when you have put all the fires out.

The various screens include handy things like lifts to go up and down in, and even speedy little cars. Graphics are good and game play is excellent.

No aliens to zap here. Just a good race game in which you must plan your moves carefully for a fast exit. The fires and gems are randomly placed so each play will offer a different challenge.

This is a quote from the HCW review by "CE" who gave it four stars out of five "A very attractive presentation in which you collect jewels hidden in a nuclear powered castle. Guide Egor through the castle unlocking doors and tackling fires or other hazards in order to turn on the reactor which makes the jewels visible.

"There is a very short time limit betore the reactor explodes ending the game. The main difficulty is Egor cannot carry both key and the fire extinguisher so he must scuttle back and forth.

"Four screens show different parts of the castle. Hazards cone in six forms including electrical faults and gas leaks, dealt with in a similar fashion to fires. This does not add more difficulty but introduces some graphic variety. Since time is very limited I found it impossible to progress beyond screen four, so I cheated by increasing the time limit so as to view all 24 screens- the same four repeated for six types of hazards. Play might become repetitive IF you get that far- not a problem for me though .... a well designed game with excellent graphics".