Orphée
(Loriciels, 1985)
Reviewed by Guillaume Chalard

Falling asleep at the wheel, you die in a car crash... and you awake in hell. You must now find the way out to the world of the living. Well, it's easier said than done because it's going to be a long road! During the first hours, this French adventure game is really addictive. The graphics are good, there are a lot of places to explore and many characters to interact with (this game was only released on disc). As in many other text adventure games, you can only use a few words to progress in your quest. But the problem here is that many essential items are not mentioned when you explore a place, so you can often only rely on the graphics! To make it harder, some actions are a little far-fetched and finding the exact syntax is sometimes really hard! However, if you love long and (very) difficult adventure games, try this one!

See also: Sauvez Yurk.

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Race along the waterways of six cities in your speedboat, doing your best to avoid other competitors and crashing into them or the scenery. You must complete six laps of each waterway, and at each end of the course, there are buoys which you must approach slowly in order to turn around. You'll be lucky if you manage to complete two laps, however. The other competitors are very inconsiderate and regularly get in your way, and you always come off worst. While the presentation is astonishingly good (the animated sequences are a particularly nice touch), the game itself could have been so much better.

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5

Four outlaws - Butch Moonwalk, Joey the Kid, Scarface Sam, and Mister No Name - are wanted, and as the sheriff, you've got to hunt them down and capture them. Each of the four levels takes you on a stroll through a particular town, shooting the cowboys that appear in groups from the left and right of the screen, and shooting barrels which may reveal bonus items - or a bomb. It sounds like a reasonable enough game, but it's not. The graphics are terrible (another awful Spectrum port) and while the music on the title screen is OK, the sound effects are useless, and the game is too slow and difficult to be of any interest whatsoever.

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3

The new RP2-16 spacecraft is capable of approaching the speed of light. While testing it, you suddenly enter another world, full of aliens and strange landscapes. The game is a straightforward space shoot-'em-up with eight levels, and all you can do is blast aliens and collect coins that allow you to upgrade your weapon temporarily. When you've shot enough aliens, an icon appears on the screen which takes you to a bonus sub-level, which you must survive in order to go to the next level. It's not at all easy, especially since waves of aliens often appear right on top of your ship and cost you a life, and even worse, the backgrounds are so brightly coloured that by the third level, it's impossible to see what's going on! Nice graphics but not so nice gameplay.

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6

Out Run
(US Gold, 1987)

This game is well known for being one of the worst coin-op conversions to be seen; it really is terrible. You're racing in your Ferrari with some beautiful girl in the passenger seat and have to get to the next checkpoint within the time limit, while dodging the traffic, which gets heavier as you go further. At the end of each stage, the road branches in two, and with five stages, there are lots of routes to take. This variety doesn't excuse the fact that the graphics are average and the only sound to be heard is the screeching of your tyres when going round the corner. In fact, you're supposed to listen to the audio tape provided whilst playing the game - what cheek! It's really slow as well.

See also: Out Run Europa, Turbo Outrun.

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3

Terrorists have stolen some top secret documents which you need to deliver to Berlin. The chase starts in England and takes in France, Spain and Italy as well. Why do the terrorists not take a much shorter route? Anyway, the game consists of seven very long levels, and as with the other two games in the series, you must reach the end of each level within the time limit. The graphics are excellent, and the game is particularly noteworthy for the remarkable amount of scenery which lines the roads - yet despite this, it's still very fast indeed. Unfortunately it's not much fun to play. Extra ammunition and turbos appear on the road occasionally, but it's difficult to collect them. Also, if the police catch you, or you run out of time, you must go all the way back to the start of the level, which really spoils the gameplay.

See also: Out Run, Turbo Outrun.

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6

The world has been devastated, the ozone layer disappeared long ago and so people have to live in isolated underground cities. Only the overlanders dare to face the perils of the outside world, delivering cargo between cities in their heavily armed cars. That is, for a price. Needless to say that the money earned for each delivery will allow you to buy better weapons and improvements for your car. Regarding graphics and sound, Overlander is quite an average game, almost a Spectrum conversion. Nevertheless, the gameplay makes it an interesting game, with a Mad Max touch that the player will enjoy, at least for a while.

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6

Oxphar
(ERE, 1987)

You have been transported from Earth to the land of Do. Your name is now Oxphar and your quest is to find the blue stone of Savanah. Do is a surreal land of fantasy in which you will meet many different kinds of characters, both human and non-human. At the start of the game, you are carrying nothing, but picking up a bank card will allow you to access the armoury. Objects can be taken from it and used appropriately, but this is where this French adventure game disappoints. It's not at all obvious what the objects are; you can't examine them, or your surroundings, and you can't talk to any of the characters. Most players will have considerable difficulty in working out the use of the large majority of the objects. The pictures accompanying each location are astoundingly beautiful and well drawn, but they're wasted on a mediocre game such as this one.

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5