Finders Keepers

Producer: Mastertronic
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £1.99
Language: Machine code
Author: David Jones

Here's the first of a batch of new year Mastertronic budget games. In Finders Keepers the King of Isbisima is upset because he has nothing to give his daughter for her birthday. As a magic knight you have been ordered to find the Princess Germintrude a very special present. Should you succeed you may be invited to become a Knight of the Polygon Table.

To carry out your appointed task, the king transports you to Spriteland which is a welter of platform-type screens and two mazes teeming with electro-historic nasties that sap your energy and useful objects in the shape of small white triangles.

There are two possible objects in this game; either you may elect to collect as many valuable objects as you can and escape from the castle, or you may collect the treasure to please the king and princess and join the polygon table. Finders Keepers is an arcade adventure, and 'adventure' in quite a literal sense, because when you are next to a white triangle you can examine or get it. On getting, you are given an inventory of what you already carry, and when the limit of five objects is reached you have the choice of dropping something first. Some objects react to form other substances, sometimes more useful than the original two, sometimes less, so finding a philosopher's stone is good, because it will transform a lump of lead into a bar of gold. Scoring is in two sections; percentage of rooms explored and cash value of objects collected. Some objects are useful in as much as they can be traded with the ghostly traders who waft about, others have a function which will help you on your way.

The screen display is a square with a status panel on the right. The platform screens are all linked horizontally and vertically. Control is in four directions, up being used when on the move to jump. In the mazes, the knight remains centre screen, while the large maze scrolls across.

COMMENTS

Control keys: user definable, eight required, four directional and keys for Get, Trade, Droplist and Examine
Joystick: Kempston, Fuller, Sinclair 2, AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: very good
Sound: good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 5
Screens: unknown, but many including continuous scrolling on mazes

It's been a while since Mastertronic have brought out one of their cheapies. I must say that I was rather cautious while loading this game having seen some of their previous attempts at programming, but to my amazement, on playing this game I found that it would easily sell at £5.95. Yes, it is that good. Finders Keepers has a comprehensive joystick selection menu with some concise instructions, and there is also an option to define the keys. Graphics on this game are fast, smooth and very well animated. The plot is quite strong, making this a purposeful game and not just a collecting game, with your ultimate task to please the king and princess. I wonder why people are more often than not pushing cheapies that would quite easily sell at the full average retail price. It seems to me that they are losing out somewhere, but Mastertronic has always had an odd strategy to marketing, and it seems to work, and definitely will work with this game.

Unknown

Most Mastertronic games have disappointed from the word go, although some have been quite playable, they have all lacked a lot in the graphics. Finders Keepers puts the record straight immediately with brightly coloured, imaginative and fully animated characters. The scrolling on mazes is particularly good. The idea is simple enough, but the fun comes from collecting objects - there are a lot, and of course you never know what each will be. Although each play reveals the same objects in the same place, picking up and dropping soon muddles them up and makes life more complicated. Generally, a game with pleasing and slick graphics, and enjoyable story line, and with a fair amount of addictivity.

Unknown

One element of this game that I find most pleasing and satisfying is that two objects, if thoughtfully put together will have a chemical reaction and form a (usually) valuable new object. I really think this is a neat point to the game and does tend to get the player thinking and not just trying to collect as many objects as possible. Another aspect that's pleasing is the combination of platform and maze game, two totally different skills are needed for each. There is, I suppose, an adventure type skill also needed, which goes to say that this game is dedicated to 50% thinking and 50% playing, yet it is an arcade game. One thing that I couldn't get the hang of though, was trading. I just didn't seem able to trade any of my objects - oh well, there are more things to life than making money (or is there)? To sum up Finders Keepers it seems to be exceptional value for money, and a distinct improvement on any of Mastertronic's previous budget games. is this the way the software industry is headed, competition not between good games and bad games, but competition between two good games but at different prices?
Unknown

FINDERS KEEPERS
Mastertronic
£1.99

Dave: Judging by the standards of the early cheapo games you would've been forgiven for thinking someone had misheard 'budget' for 'bodge-it'.





This game certainly changes all that. There's nothing particularly new about it - we've seen platform games before (Just a few! Ed) but there are a number of unusual differences.





For a start, not all the playing area is divided into rooms - there are some rather nice scrolling mazes tucked away in there.





Then there's an extra element to the game that really makes it. Some of the objects that you'll find combine to make a third, and you can then start bartering for other bits with the Castle traders.





The whole point of all this hunting and haggling is that you have been sent by the king to find a birthday present for his daughter.





The 'finders keepers' of the title just means that once you've nabbed the treasure, you can stash it away for yourself. It's a shame we're not informed of the king's reaction to this bit of private enterprise.





Fortunately, the plot ain't that important so you're not likely to lose your head. So, if you find it, keep it!

A colourful, well presented game. Searching for treasure gives that bit extra to life above the competition - and at this price, it deserves to be a...
Ross Holman
4/5 HIT

I'd rather have kept the king's daughter than her birthday prezzies but hopping about to cop the loot was worth it anyway.
Roger Willis
4/5 HIT

MACHINE: Spectrum/keyboard or joystick
SUPPLIER: Mastertronic
PRICE: £1.99

"Ere, I thought you said Mastertronic games were a load of rubbish"

"Yes, I cannot tell a lie. It has been known for me to pass a judgement of that kind in the past"

"Well, what would you say to a game which has excellent graphics, loads of screens, beats the pants off a lot of the current hit games - and costs just £1.99?"

"I'd say the software company had a mega-hit on their hands, mate!"

"So Mastertronic games can't be all that bad then?"

"Pardon?"

"Yes, Finders Keepers is the latest budget release from Mastertronic. And I found it - so I'm keeping it!"

Finders Keepers features a neat video character called Magic Knight - who by, all rights, should star in a few more games. He's such a nice guy!

He has been sent by the king to find a gift for the princess who will soon be celebrating her birthday. Our mate Magic finds himself in the Castle of Spriteland which is packed with treasures - and energy-draining monsters.

The game features more than a touch of Adventure too - as you can trade items with ghostly traders who are more than willing to bargain with you.

You can also examine objects you find by hitting the appropriate key - some objects react with others in strange ways which you'll discover as you play.

There are mazes to be solved and puzzles puzzled over in this original combination of platform and Atic Atac.

There are two ways to play. You can either collect as much treasure as possible from the castle and escape with your booty - or you can return to the king and join the famous Knights of the Polygon table!

Mastertronic have a real hit on their hands with Finders Keepers. A number one? You bet!

CHEAPO GAMES - THE PCG VERDICT

Chris Anderson samples the huge pile of low-cost tapes in the shops and discovers a few cracking bargains.

Imagine a game containing 150 very difficult screens to be conquered and mapped out. Suppose each screen offers attractive, smooth graphics and exciting sound effects. Now suppose the game is on the market for £2.50. A bargain? Dead right. What's more the game exists. It's called Go Go the Ghost, it's released by Firebird for the Commodore 64, and it's just one of the programs we've unearthed which disprove the claim that all budget games are junk.

Mind you, you have to be incredibly careful shopping in the sub £3 price range. Many of the titles on offer are state of the art 1982. They offer about as much lasting interest as the Daily Mirror quick crossword. Frankly four or five of them wouldn't be a patch on a decent standard price game. But there are also a large number of straightforward, simple, competent games which, until recently, software houses were selling for at least a fiver. And just occasionally you find a gem of a game which even a stinking rich games freak can't afford to turn up his nose at.

1985
CBM 64 (Mastertronic, £1.99)

Stunning graphics for a cheapo game. You blast off in a space-craft to one of four planets where you have to pick up a number of nuclear pods. This involves manoeuvring the craft very delicately until it's close enough to activate a tractor beam.

Accidental contact with the planet terrain is fatal and so is being hit by a regularly passing flying saucer or by the slow-firing planet defence guns. The game has a great feel to it because of the way the craft is controlled - rotate left, rotate right and thrust, as in Asteroids or Lunar LanderThere are also some cool sound effects.

Each of the planets and the home base consist of a scrolling, wrap-around scenario. The planets include caverns, some of which are very tricky.

Should you clear all tour, you get to try the final stage which is an even more difficult cavern from which a fusion core must be picked up. It had my pulse racing, that bit if you make it, level two is the same except with negative gravity, making it harder still.

Verdict: Knockout.
Value for Money: 9

GO GO THE GHOST
CBM 64 (Firebird, £2.50)

This one will spook the opposition for sure - it's a howling success, one which most software houses would be proud to sell at around the £7 mark. It was written by a Swede which means that whenever Go Go gives up the ghost he emits a speech bubble saying 'Fjup!' Swedish for 'Zap!'

In fact, there's an awful lot of fjupping because the game is ghoulishly mean. In each of the 150 screens you have to go go round various obstacles to one of the exits, possibly flicking switches or picking up keys on the way. A large number of dastardly creatures obstruct you, forcing you to resort to an invisibility spell. This drains your power at a disspiriting rate, although there are objects to collect which restore power as well as grant extra time, lives or points.

This is a full-featured arcade-adventure which could have you entranced for weeks. Just remember - you first read about it in PCG.

Verdict: Go go get it
Value for Money: 9

CHILLER
CBM 64 (Mastertronics, £1.99)

We've already reviewed this one - a surprisingly good platform game based on the Michael Jackson video. There are five very different screens, and some good background music.

Verdict: It's a thriller.
Value for Money: 8

BOOTY
CBM 64, Spectrum 48K (Firebird, £2.50)

Reviewed in our November issue, this is another cracking bargain with 20 linked screens of platforms and some novel game ideas.

Verdict: Bootiful
Value for Money: 8

FINDERS KEEPERS
Spectrum 48K (Mastertronic, £1.99)

The dramatic improvement in Mastertronic titles continues with this sparkling arcade adventure.

Make your way through 25 screens of platform action, plus two large four-way scrolling mazes, in search of precious objects. Some are just lying around, others must be obtained by trading. And certain combinations of objects (which you have to work out) merge to produce more valuable ones (eg. philosopher's stone + bar of lead = bar of gold).

Can you earn enough money to buy the King's daughter the special birthday present she wants? Or will you simply try to make yourself a fortune and then escape from the castle? Either way the game requires a certain amount of thought as well as arcade skills, and should take some little while to solve.

Pretty graphics, worthy of a princess, including a very cute knight. Some of the platform screens seem a bit unplayable, and you're bound to lose energy by contacting nasties. But still an amazing title for the money.

Verdict: Mastertronic magic.
Value for Money: 9

SHUTTLE SHOCK
Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99)

What a shock! A platform game with a difference. The difference is angular teleporting. To move up you don't jump, you teleport in an upward diagonal line. With a bit of skill you end up on a platform and not in mid-air.

Then there are the lifts which either drop you down safely, or shoot you sideways. They make moving about the screens great fun.

Apart from that the screens and nasties are in the Manic Miner genre and are really very good. Solving them is challenging and fun. The only drawback is there are just 10 screens and it may not take more than a week or two to get through them all.

Verdict: Lemme 'ave another go.
Value for Money: 7

ESTRA
BBC B (Firebird, £2.50)

You collect some 30 fragments to form a statue at the centre of the screen. But there are five different alien species to avoid, each behaving quite differently.

Great to see your statue nearing completion, heart-breaking when it gets blown to smithereens. The action doesn't alter too much on later screens but it does get VERY tough.

Verdict: Great fun.
Value for Money: 7

ACID DROPS
BBC B (Firebird, £2.50)

Hit the fire button and blast the nasties, but watch out for the acid which starts to drip out of the tank at the top of the screen. It kills you on contact - and it turns the nasties into nastier nasties. Survive long enough and a gate opens, allowing you a n exciting fast ride through a maze into the next level.

Verdict: Sniffing stuff.
Value for Money: 7

THE HACKER
BBC B (Firebird, £2.50)

A very competent platform game. The all leaping action isn't much lower in standard than in hit titles such as Blagger and Mineshaft. And although there are only 12 screens, instead of 20 or 30, you might just find that's all you're likely to get through.

Verdict: Manic fun.
Value for Money: 7

EXODUS
CBM 64 (Firebird, £2.50)

Enjoyable shoot-'em-up based (loosely) on the arcade game Tempest. Shoot monsters corning out of a pit, but avoid hitting the potatoes. Nice opening music.

Verdict: Good blasting.
Value for Money: 6

FRED'S FAN FACTORY
Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99)

Novel game idea in which you have to turn fans on and off to blow balloons safely through a hazard-filled platform network.

Verdict: Fun for a while
Value for Money: 5

HITMAN
Spectrum 48K (Scorpio Games World, £1.99)

Track down and shoot a series of killer agents. One or two reasonable still graphics, otherwise tedious rubbish, despite separate 48K instruction program!

Verdict: Another Scorpio sting.
Value for Money: 3

BEEBUL
Spectrum 48K (Scorpio Games World, £1.99)

Work your way down through a series of platforms, avoiding oscillating monsters.

Verdict: Not enough to it.
Value for Money: 4

NUKE LEAR
Spectrum 48K (Charlie Charlie Sugar, £1.99)

Simple panic game in which you try to divert a series of rolling barrels down the right channels.

Verdict: Stay Nuke Lear free.
Value for Money: 3

CRAZY CAVERNS
Spectrum 16/48K (Firebird, £2.50)

Push cubes into a huge, colourful mouth while avoiding 'crazy crashers'. Interesting tactics and 10 different screens.

Verdict: Good for 16K.
Value for Money: 6

MOONLIGHTER
Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99)

Variant on Pengo. Push boxes around a warehouse and avoid tennis balls. Nice music.

Verdict: Couldn't play it.
Value for Money: 4

RUN BABY RUN
Spectrum 16/48K (Firebird, £2.50)

Very difficult game in which you attempt to trick pursuing cars into crashing into each other. Poor graphics, but several different road layouts.

Verdict: Frustrating
Value for Money: 3

ZULU
CBM 64 (Firebird, £2.50)

Simple Pac Man based game with 25 connected mazes. You collect masks and avoid warriors. Hitting cauldrons makes the maze invisible.

Verdict: Preferred the movie.
Value for Money: 5

COPTER
Spectrum 48K (Omega, £1.99)

Fly a tiny helicopter around a blank screen, blasting other tiny helicopters.

Verdict: Don't bother.
Value for Money: 2

CALIFORNIA GOLDRUSH
CBM 64 (Software Projects, £1.99)

Move completely round boxes to create gold. Avoid Indians, or block their paths with dynamite. Average graphics and sound.

Verdict: Mediocre.
Value for Money: 5

ASTRAL ATTACK
CBM 64 (Omega, £1.99)

Move a cursor over descending shells to protect your cities.

Verdict: Pretty, but boring.
Value for Money: 3

REVENGE OF THE QUADRA
Vic 20 +8K (Software Projects, £1.99)

Fast, violent, noisy shoot-'em-up in the best Vic traditions. Your space ship shuttles left/right at the bottom of the screen and you hammer the aliens.

Verdict: A good, old-fashioned BLAST.
Value for Money: 6

GOLD DIGGER
BBC B (Firebird, £2.50)

Rather poor variant of Dig Dug.

Verdict: Bury it.
Value for Money: 4

CHALLENGER
CBM 64 (Mastertronics, £1.99)

Action based on the first section of Skramble.

Verdict: Unchallenging.
Value for money: 3

WIZARD'S WARRIOR
Spectrum 48K (Mastertronic, £1.99)

Multi-screen maze game with poor, jerky graphics.

Verdict: Yawn.
Value For Money: 2

BYTE BITTEN
Spectrum 48K (Firebird, £2.50)

Two-part game - make your way round a maze to find an object and you get to play Sea Wolf, a horizontally scrolling shoot-'em-up set over a fleet of ships.

Verdict: Forget the maze part.
Value For Money: 4

BIRD STRIKE
BBC B (Firebird, £2.50)

Shoot pigeons to add notes to a tune. Trouble is these aircraft keep getting in the way.

Verdict: Enjoyable but simple.
Value for Money: 5

FLIP FLAP
Spectrum 48K (Software Projects, £1.99)

Fine simulation of pinball with plenty of different machines to try out. But is pinball any fun on a micro?

Verdict: No.
Value For Money: 3

TOMB OF AKENATEN
Spectrum 48K (Charlie Charlie Sugar, £1.99)

Mostly written in Basic. Jerk your way through an uninteresting labyrinth.

Verdict: Graveyard material.
Value For Money: 1

VAMPIRE KILLER
Spectrum 48K (Scorpio Games World, £1.99)

Tedious treasure collection game, written mostly in Basic and featuring jerky slow movement.

Verdict: Bloodsucker
Value For Money: 2

PRICE: £1.99
GAME TYPE: Arcade

Finders Keepers is a charming program in which you play the part of the Magic Knight. You have two choices in the game. Either you can please the king by collecting all the treasure in the castle of Spriteland so that the king can give it to his daughter for her birthday and you can win a place on the Polygon table. On the other hand, you could just keep all the treasure and make your escape.

The castle is made up of an elaborate series of rooms, many of which are based on the time-honoured Jet Set Willy principle, with weird creatures which sap your energy crossing and recrossing them, a series of tunnels and ledges and even a teleport which sends you spinning to another section of the castle.

Other sections of the game take the form of mazes, which scroll continually as you move through them, producing an eye-straining effect for anyone playing the game on a television rather than on a monitor.

Only five objects can be carried at any one time. Others can be dropped (except the glue, of course), or sold to the trader. Some objects can be combined with others to produce new ones, although it takes some experimentation to find which objects will combine. For some reason, all objects which you find look like small heaps of salt.

Minor reservations apart, this game is good fun, and represents excellent value for money.

Spectrum 48K
Mastertronic
Platform
£1.99

If you've never played a platform game, then this might be worth a try. Your quest is to travel round the castle of Spriteland, collecting up treasures which the King has carelessly left scattered around his castle.

There are the usual collection of baddies trying to kill you, a maze and a large number of screens. You can only carry five objects at a time, and you can then trade them for cash, or be a good fellow and return them to the king.

PRICE: £1.99
PUBLISHER: Mastertronic [redacted]

As Magic Knight, you aim to obtain a place at the famous Polygon Table by exploring a castle and collecting treasures for the King's daughter.

At first sight a platform game, this does have some absorbing variations. As well as amassing objects, you examine, drop, sell or even trade them with some of the locals. And you don't start out on your quest totally destitute - your worldly goods consist of a lump of cheese, an Olympic medal and a chunk of catmeat.

In just the early part of my travels, I came across even odder objects: Gordon's Foot (whatever that is), a carving knife, a philosopher's stone, a pile of mud and a tube of glue. Some interact with others.

A panel at the side of the screen shows the total value of your assets, cash in hand, lives and energy remaining. The list of objects you are carrying is displayed whenever you attempt to pick up another.

Each room is separately named and has its own screen. Move to an exit on one screen and your knight, looking like Snoopy in armour, pops up in the adjoining room. There are two exceptions. Somewhere in the castle are two mazes, which both feature multi-directional scrolling over several screens.

Many rooms are similar, being differently configured platforms, but there is a good cross-section of ghouls, ghosties and gizmos, and the graphics are clean and clear. Animation is smooth and presentation and screen layout are top notch,

This thoroughly enjoyable game has plenty of depth and interest. Even at three times the price it would still be excellent value. At its budget price it's a smasher.