Oh no! Corrupt movie moguls have stolen your latest film scripts! You play as international superstar Seymour and must jump around various film sets, shooting and throwing bombs at the baddies, and find your way to the end of each stage, to do battle with the big boss and retrieve your scripts. Why Codemasters created Seymour when they had good old Dizzy is a mystery to me, but, that said, he's managed to star in a few decent games. Stuntman Seymour, though, is merely average. The graphics are bland and blocky, the game is flickery, jerky and slow beyond belief and each level has the same end boss! However, it has some pretty addictive music, is not too difficult, and despite its flaws, it's quite fun, with each well designed level based on a different movie genre.

See also: Sergeant Seymour Robotcop, Seymour at the Movies, Super Seymour Saves the Planet, Wild West Seymour.

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Subbuteo
(Electronic Zoo/Goliath, 1990)

Many football fans will remember growing up with Subbuteo, the table football game where you flick the players using your finger. It's been around since 1947, and this is obviously a computer adaptation of the game – and surprisingly, the concept works rather well. Each player takes it in turn to fire the ball using one of their players; if a player doesn't hit the ball or fouls another player, play passes to the other team. There are also opportunities for 'defensive flicks' and 'positional flicks' which allow you to adjust the positions of your players. The graphics are crude, but that's not a big problem. What is a problem is that even on the novice level, the computer is rather good, and aiming your players correctly is very tricky.

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In order to cover up an experiment gone wrong, the government tries to dispose of the evidence by dumping toxic waste into the sea. However, as a result, swimmers begin to go missing and mutated sea creatures spiral out of control. This is a job for you – Sub Hunter! In this scrolling shoot-'em-up, your task is to save the swimmers and survive in the hostile seas. The graphics are detailed, colourful and well drawn with a fine colour selection, so the visual result is excellent. The intro graphics are hand-drawn and there is parallax scrolling during the gameplay. The in-game music creates a stressful atmosphere. The gameplay is fast-paced with accurate control response of the submarine, while the difficulty level is balanced as levels progress. The grab factor is strong. Overall, what we have here is a new CPC jewel.

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Travel through five levels of a subterranean cave system in your spaceship, rescuing the miners who have been kidnapped by the aliens. Each level contains eight men, several aliens that must be shot, and a lot of other hazards. It's a bit like Defender in that the game is horizontally scrolling and there's a scanner at the top of the screen showing a map of the level and the positions of both the men and the aliens. However, the cave passages are very narrow, and there are often moving hazards that block and unblock them, so some very precise positioning and timing is required. The poor collision detection and occasionally flickery graphics spoil the game even more.

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The London Underground is a dangerous place in this scenario; the stations are filled with muggers and thugs. It's up to you to clear the stations and make them safe for London's citizens. From the very start, you are heavily outnumbered as skinheaded, bare-chested fighters close in on you, approaching you from both sides, and beat you up mercilessly. It's difficult enough to kill the required number of enemies to go to the next level, but to make things worse, when you lose energy, you have to start the level all over again! It's not a good game anyway, as movement is sluggish and the graphics have been converted straight from the Spectrum. The music is the only positive thing that's worth mentioning about this poor game.

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Sudoku arrives on the CPC thanks to Kevin Thacker. In this puzzle game, the objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column and row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid, contain all of the digits from 1 to 9. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid, which typically has a unique solution. There are only four colours, but there is no need for more. Furthermore, an Oriental-style tune plays during the game. There are three game modes, one of which gives the player the opportunity to create a sudoku puzzle as he or she may like. This automatically gives infinite depth to the gameplay, thus the grab factor is really strong. If you like sudoku, simply do not miss this game.

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Everyone should know about sudoku – the puzzle game in which you must fill a 9×9 grid, ensuring that each number from 1 to 9 appears only once in each row, column and 3×3 block. You can choose to play either a randomly generated puzzle from one of four difficulty levels, or attempt the "128 level challenge" – and if you somehow manage to solve all 128 levels, you really can crown yourself a Sudoku Master! The game is very well presented indeed, which isn't surprising, as the programmer was involved in the French demo scene for many years. Some of the colour schemes are horrible, though – but thankfully, you can change them easily. The music that plays during the game is quite relaxing and not distracting. Fans of sudoku will certainly enjoy it.

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Six rubies belonging to the Sultan of Baghdad are hidden inside Hampton Court maze. However, the ghost of the Sultan's bodyguard still roams the maze and is waiting to catch any intruders! Your task is to collect all six of these rubies. Unfortunately, the game is written entirely in BASIC, and it takes ages to draw your view each time you move. Your energy decreases quickly as well, and it's only possible to rescue one ruby at a time before re-entering the maze; in summary, it's extremely boring.

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This Olympics-inspired game was originally released in 1984, but it wasn't until four years later that it was released for the CPC on US Gold's Gold, Silver, Bronze compilation. There are seven events to compete in – the pole vault, diving, the 4×400-metre relay, the 100-metre sprint, the freestyle relay, the 100-metre freestyle, and skeet shooting. Most of the events are quite good and thankfully don't involve a lot of manic joystick waggling, although obtaining a good result in the pole vault and diving events seems to be mostly down to luck. It's also very difficult to beat the computer's default records in most of the events. Despite these flaws, there is a very varied mixture of events to play which will keep you entertained.

See also: California Games, Winter Games.

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In the 22nd century, stations orbit the Earth and harness the Sun's energy to grow crystals that are used for interstellar travel. However, things have gone wrong; the disrupter pulses have gone awry, and your task is to shoot them and collect ten crystals on each station before warping to the next one. Each station consists of a 30×30 grid, and you can only move horizontally or vertically. It's difficult to know what to say about the graphics, since your view of the grid is represented using coloured tiles – it's certainly unusual, if rather primitive. The constant noise of your engine is annoying, and the game itself is a bit repetitive.

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