*** STAR GAME***
LLAMASOFT
16K 1/2 PLAYERS
In the words of the hairy
Llama man himself. Like, WOW, man.... this is a real blast! Mutant
Camels comes to the Atari with a vengeance. Not just a translation but a
full blown adaptation using all of the Atari's powerful features
including display list interrupts, scrolling, player missile graphics,
animation and AWESOME sound. Llamasoft have been bandying the word
AWESOME about for some time but now that he has had the chance to pull
the stops out of an Atari, I am sure that Jeff Minter now knows what
AWESOME really means. You don't really need to read any further, just
get your £7.50 (yes, that's all) off to Llamasoft and wait for a
superbly packaged, excellently programmed, top quality cassette to drop
through your door. You won't regret it.
For those of you who
don't know anything of the Llama man's games, let me give you some
details of this one. It helps to know a little about the game's
designer, Jeff Minter, a kind of young eccentric in the grand English
tradition who lives in a sixties time-warp, is in love with Llamas and
writes weird games about Mutant Camels and Sheep in Space. Don't let the
eccentricity fool you, the man is a brilliant programmer and has his
finger right on the pulse of the eighties micro/arcade scene. The game
features an attempt by the race of Zzyax to stop mankind from leaving
Earth and exploring the galaxy by using genetic engineering on camels to
create 90 foot high, neutronium-shielded, laser spitting beasts designed
to bring death and destruction to Earth. The beasts can be destroyed by
neutron-canon bolts from a highly manoeuvrable fighter ship and that is
your task. The Camels march relentlessly across the screen and you must
destroy them one by one by pumping them full of neutron bolts. Your ship
is shielded but loses shield power each time you collide with a Camel or
are hit by a laser bolt until nine hits destroy the ship. The colours
are brilliant with display list interrupts or GTIA forming the sky,
pyramids on the horizon and a Forward scrolling foreground. If you
destroy all Camels on a level you go into hyperwarp phase and must avoid
missiles as the terrain scrolls by at incredible speed. Colours on the
hyperwarp are even better.
The only game to have
been reviewed in PAGE 6 which has been given the title STAR GAME! Partly
because there has not been a better Atari game at this price, partly
because it proves to the world that Atari is the best home computer
around and last but not least because any man that is mad enough to
admit publicly that he loves llamas must be alright. The fact that he
can write brilliant programs helps too.
Atari software generally
sells in quite small quantities compared with other micros and if Jeff
Minter is to adapt his other games it will require you to show your
dedication and support by buying this in your thousands. If you love
arcade games, you could not spend £7.50 more effectively. Buy it, get
all your friends round and show them what a great game on the best micro
looks like and get them to buy both an Atari and Attack of the Mutant
Camels.
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