Mr Wino
(Silverbird, 1988)
Willy Wino is clearing all the bottles away after a massive booze-up. Having recovered from a hangover, he sets about gathering the bottles and avoiding aliens and spikes. You don’t actually have to collect all the bottles, although you might need to collect all the bottles on a screen to open some doors. It’s a simple and colourful platform game that is really rather enjoyable at first, and the sound effects are jolly, too. Once you reach the second level, this enjoyment disappears as you discover that it’s too difficult.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World.
Mr Wong’s Loopy Laundry
(Amsoft/Artic Computing, 1984)
Help Mr Wong run his laundry by negotiating the platforms and ladders, collecting the dirty clothes, and throwing them down the chute to be washed. However, it’s not that easy, because Mr Wong is constantly being chased by a possessed iron, a sack of dirty laundry, and a cluster of soap bubbles. Well, it is a loopy laundry, after all! Fortunately, he can fire starch at the enemies to freeze them temporarily, but his supplies are limited, so it must be used sparingly. This is a very early platform game, and it shows. The graphics are very basic, albeit colourful, and the confined playing area makes it quite difficult to dodge the enemies, and each level looks and plays almost identically to the previous one.
Watch YouTube videos of this game by:
Amstrad CPC World,
ChinnyVision.
If there’s anything good to be said about this game, it’s that it wasn’t programmed by Opera Soft themselves; it was coded by a freelance group. The graphics are average, and so are the scrolling and the movements of your character. Nevertheless, Mithos is so unbelievably difficult right from the start, that nothing else matters about it. Games like this one made quite clear the crisis that Spanish companies were about to undergo at that time.
Watch a YouTube video of this game by:
jgonza.
You were dropped on the moon against your will (don’t ask me how) and your only chance to return home is to reach the rocket going back to Earth before it takes off. Driving a kind of buggy (which fortunately was shipped with two gun turrets), you must find the key that opens the rocket launchpad and clear your way through strange bouncing and exploding aliens. The game is divided into five parts, which are much alike. The difficulty is well balanced and increases smoothly. You’ll soon figure out that the real point of the game is trying not to run out of fuel. So, you’ll have to keep shooting fuel barrels (!), while jumping over holes and avoiding hostile fire. The realisation is rather good, with colourful graphics and very good scrolling. It’s a pity that the game, though rather difficult, should be so short.
You are the Mobileman, tasked with a mission to clear the catacombs of monsters, acid containers and barriers that block your way. You pilot a levi-pod that can move in four directions. Your weapon shoots a certain coloured blast that will only take out monsters of the same colour, so flowers of different colours need to be found to remove other creatures found dwelling in deeper levels. Acid cans act as barriers that can be shot by finding gaps in the walls of the maze. Strangely, the occupants of this underground world love barbecues, and sitting upon one restores your energy! This is an easy game to get into with a balanced difficulty level. It features lovely graphics and a very pleasant tune.
Mokowe
(Lankhor, 1990)
Knowledge of French is required in order to play this game properly.
Elephants are being hunted and killed for their tusks, and you have ventured to Kenya, travelling through jungles and villages, to arrest two ivory dealers, bring them to justice and do your bit to stop these magnificent beasts from being slaughtered. The game starts in a hotel where three rather eccentric characters are staying. Timing is essential here, as the characters come and go depending on the time, and there are some areas which can only be accessed at certain times; the best way to find out when is to experiment. The graphics, music and sound effects are all excellent and atmospheric and have a real African feel. The story and concept of the game is a welcome change from the fantasy and science fiction settings of most adventures.
Molecule Man
(Mastertronic, 1986)
Molecule Man is trapped in a maze consisting of 256 screens – and what’s more, the maze is contaminated with radioactive material! Escaping from the maze using the teleporter is a good idea, then, but it can only be used once the 16 circuits have been found. While wandering the maze, you will find coins that can be used to buy bombs (which allow you to blow holes in walls and access other parts of the maze) and anti-rad pills (which top up your energy). You will need to buy pills fairly regularly, though. The maze is viewed from an isometric perspective, and while the scenery is detailed, everything is drawn in monochrome. This isn’t the sort of game that appeals to me that much, but it also contains a level editor that allows you to design your own mazes – a nice bonus.
Momie Blues is a relatively early 3D maze game, and yet despite this, the graphics are very smooth. There are traps to be avoided and corridor-filling nightmares to be defeated as you explore the maze. I quite liked the in-game sound effects, including the sound you make when you are moving around. There’s not a lot to it but it’s head and shoulders in front of Sultan’s Maze, for example. It goes to show how far Amstrad CPC graphics had advanced in just a couple of years. It’s also a nice change of pace from Coktel Vision’s many other CPC releases.
Monopoly
(Leisure Genius, 1985)
Arguably the world’s best known board game is poorly recreated on the CPC. Up to six players, human or computer, can play as they buy properties and then houses and hotels, and hopefully collect rent when other players land on their properties. There’s also the frustration when you roll the dice and realise that you’re going to land on the ‘go to jail’ square. Unfortunately, the game moves extremely slowly. Messages take ages to appear on the screen, and there are unnecessarily long delays between events. It ruins the thrill of the game entirely. Stick with the real board game; it’s much more fun that way.
Monte Carlo Casino
(Code Masters, 1989)
This little number is really five games in one; roulette, black jack, poker, craps and the fruit machine all feature, although the fruit machine is rather lacking in extras. You start with $10,000 and have to break the bank by getting a cool one million dollars – and it’s not easy. You can choose any of the five games, and if you’re not having much success at them, you can leave them at any time. The graphics are average, but there are some nice tunes – and at least you can’t lose any money! Then again, you can’t win any, either...