Automania

Producer: Mikrogen
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.95
Language: Machine code

Meet a new hero - your average British Worker by the name of Wally Week. Wally Week is destined for big things - like a three percent wage rise next month. Wally works on a car assembly line, in fact he is the assembly line. In this highly original platform type game you must help Wally build a series of cars.

The game has two basic screens, starting off in the stock room. There are three platforms with a single ladder to the first level and two at either end from the second to the third. On the two upper levels are situated the six parts of a car. What you do is walk Wally along the floor, up the ladders and collect the parts, one at a time and then take them down and through the door to the assembly room. This contains a large hydraulic lift, and on its first level are some of the already assembled bits of a car. When Wally walks his collected stock part over the appropriate area of the vehicle the carried part is automatically deposited in its correct position. Then it's back to the stock room for the next bit. Each piece has a time limit.

Sounds simple enough, even for your average British workman. But then, this is a computer game so nothing is as it looks! The factory is populated with robots and bouncing tyres which kill on contact, and from the overhead gantries in the assembly room, falling air cooling blades cause problems. Fortunately, Wally can jump. To add to his problems the gantries in the stock room keep moving in and out and in difficult positions are various static objects which are designed to tempt an honest man away from his work like teapots (mind the oil cans as well).

When (if) all six parts are correctly assembled, the car is driven off to be replaced by the rudiments of the next one. In all there are ten cars to build starting off with a humble 2CV and ending up with... ah, well that's up to you.

COMMENTS

Control keys: preset - Q/A up/down, O/P left/right, M to jump, but all keys may be user-defined
Joystick: ZX 2, Kempston, and almost any other via UDK
Keyboard play: very responsive
Use of colour: very good
Graphics: superb, with excellent animation
Sound: great tune (continuous) with well used sound effects - sound may be switched off
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 3
Screens: 2 but with 10 cars to build in each
Originality: very original use of traditional game components

Automania is a game about Wally - the game itself is far from being a wally game. In fact it's a superb game with excellent graphics and animation. I really enjoyed it. This will be a game of the month I'm sure. I found the choice of the first car very appropriate for Wally - you know, the upturned pram on wheels vegetarian mobile. This is probably the best game yet from Mikrogen.

Automania has some of the best animation and realistic graphics that I have ever seen. All the graphics are large and colourful, and needless to say they move smoothly. There is much more to this game than just building a car - it's a race against time - a very fast ticking clock. Colour and sound is well used with a continuous 'manic' style tune throughout, which may be stopped if it drives you mad. The best game that Mikrogen have ever produced and worth buying.

Great colour, great sound, amazing graphics. The animation of Wally is just superb. Not only is he a large, highly detailed caricature (rather Andy Capp like) but he is beautifully animated with plenty of neat touches from his flat cap and beer paunch to the cheeky way he turns to look out at you after completing some particularly difficult task well. On top of that comes a game which has been well planned and implemented to provide just the right combination of temptingness with skill difficulties. Timing jumps in two directions over a static obstacle where you must land or take off from a constantly moving platform is very tricky. Automania is highly playable and extremely addictive - don't be put off by what at first appears to be a rather plodding speed, a bit Bear Bovver-like, Wally walks faster than some of the obstacles, slower than others and all in all it makes for a properly paced game of high entertainment value.

Ron: Wally, the manic mechanic, has got to build 10 cars. What could be simpler? Well, after playing this game for a while, the answer's got to be 'just about anything!'

Wally's first job is to go along to the stores and collect the first part he needs - however, this is no ordinary storeroom. Most of the spare parts have taken on a life of their own, rolling about menacingly (if you can call a gentle rolling movement 'menacing' that is). Anyway, avoiding these, Wally must climb the ladders and jump across holes in the crumbling floors until he finds the part he's looking for; once he's got it, it's back to where he started. Thus, the game continues until the first car's built... and then it's on to the next car. Whew!

The theme's original (although jumping over moving objects and climbing ladders certainly isn't!) and graphics, colour and speed arc all used to good advantage. The presentation and execution of the game are excellent. 4/5 HIT

David: The graphics in this game are quite superb, which is a shame because the game isn't. Basically just another 'climb the ladder' game, I'm look forward to the sequel. 4/5 HIT

Roger: As games go, this ain't bad at all. Shame they called the hero of the game Wally, as that's exactly how he acted with me at the controls! I'd give it the thumbs up... 5/5 HIT

Use of Computer: 92%
Graphics: 89%
Playability: 86%
Getting Started: 83%
Addictive Qualities: 88%
Value for Money: 91%
Overall: 88%

Automania heralded the coming of WALLY WEEK and of the HYPER load. Basically the aim of the game was to collect the pieces of the various cars and put them together. The problem with this was that your a WALLY so nothing is simple even the BP cans have turned against him and Wally must beware of the malevolent tyres. The game is played over two screens, one screen where you get the various parts of the car and the other where you assemble it all. As more and more cars are assembled the first screen gets increasingly difficult. There are ten cars to be built the first a 2CV and the last being a Rolls Royce.

Automania is a straightforward platform game, which even by today's standards is pretty good. The graphics have never really been bettered by any other platform game, they are big and clear, though there are a couple of attribute problems. The sound was pretty good with a continuous tune throughout the whole of the game. Probably one of the best features of the game were the credits that rolled up the screen at the beginning of the game. Automania is still one of the best platform games around and worth buying.
RC

Automania still outshines many of today's software. Its graphics are well animated and there are few attribute problems, which still corrupt many new games. I think it's a little less playable and addictive than it was eight months ago. Nobody has, as yet, tried to copy the idea behind Automania and if they do they will have to try very hard to better it. If you want a good game to start off your software collection BUY Automania.
BS

(Rob) The ratings for Automania still stand really, in fact it may have been a bit underrated.

(Ben) I wouldn't argue much with the ratings perhaps 2% off playability and addictive qualities, and I'd knock a couple of % off the value as well.

AUTO-CUE FOR WALLY

Memory: 48K
Price: £6.95
Joystick: Kempston, Interface Two

Manic Miner has set a standard which is very hard to beat and there are by now many variants on the split-level hazard avoidance game. Automania produced by Mikro-Gen, is one respectable version.

The scenario is a garage workshop where Wally, the rather untidy mechanic, is attempting to assemble cars. Wally must negotiate suitably automobile hazards to leave the workshop and enter the stock room to collect the next part for the car he is putting together.

On the ground floor tyres bounce along and must be jumped over to avoid instant termination. Ladders lead to the two other tiers. Those platforms have moving gaps. If Wally falls he is killed. There are also various items littered about which must be hurdled. The hazards change after each car is completed and become progressively more difficult, though the format is essentially the same. That results in a repetitive quality which, if you're not overkeen on the scenario, can seem monotonous after a while.

The graphics are bold and colourful and Wally responds well to the controls, though he strolls along at a leisurely pace to make jumping more hazardous. There is a full demo mode, high score facility and timer. Mikro-Gen also offer a £100 prize for the month's highest score. Although the alternative title on the insert is 'Manic Mechanic' this program, whilst difficult and well-made, does not have the range of screens of Miner Willy's nightmare world and loses out by inviting comparisons.

WE LOOK AT THE LATEST SPECTRUM RELEASES TO DISCOVER JUST WHAT JACK WAS DOING UP THAT BEANSTALK.

The screen shows lots of levels, connected by ladders with obstacles to trip over, and holes to fall through. You control a character who moves around the screen, collecting objects to assemble on the other screen. No, wait; this time the character you move is an endearing cartoon of a garage mechanic. No, of course you haven't seen it before. You have to assemble a car, you see, and the program plays a Laurel and Hardy theme and... why are you looking so bored?

For those of you who have not seen variants on this game a thousand times before Automania is produced by Mikrogen, 44 The Broadway, Bracknell, Berkshire and costs £6.95.

NAME: Automania
PRICE: £6.95
SYSTEM: Spectrum 48K
PUBLISHER: Mikro-Gen 0344 427317
FORMAT: Cassette
OTHER VERSIONS: None
OUTLETS: Retail

MANIC MECHANIC

Wally Week is here. No, it's not, a week for wally activities, like the silly season in Fleet Street. Wally Week is merely the hero.

OBJECTIVES

Wally must put ten cars together, each of which has six components which he must collect from the store room and take to the assembly area.

IN PLAY

There's an option of musical accompaniment, which sounds like the Laurel and Hardy theme. There's a demo mode which pulls up a credit screen: Lighting by Eddy's Son etc.

Wally starts at bottom left of the store room. There are three levels and three ladders, one central at the lowest level, the other two at left to right leading from the second to third levels. The platforms forming the second and third floors are shown as two cross-hatched gangplanks whose ends move towards and away from the middle. As each different car is completed, the layout of the store room changes and Wally gains an extra life.

On the lowest level two wheels wobble from side to side, crossing at the foot of the ladder, while what looks for all the world like a hover-tele moves from left to right and back. Naturally, you must jump over these, as well as static items such as kettles and cans of oil which can fatally trip you up.

The first item to collect from stores may be, for example, something like the lower half of a nearside door, though sometimes it's difficult to recognise the part until it's fitted to the car. Collecting the first component involves climbing the central ladder, jumping right to one of the tricky moving gangplanks, and you're there. Moving over an item picks it up automatically.

With parts collected, it's back down the ladder to the assembly room where the screen is much the same. Additional hazards are cooling fans, pistons with swinging con-rods, nuts and bolts or learner plates which fall at random from the ceiling. It's best to avoid letting these land on you - the result is RIP and loss of one of Wally's three lives.

In the assembly area, Wally takes the part to the car, leaping into the air to position upper parts. Each piece has a time limit, so those bits in the further regions of the store room are especially tricky.

VERDICT

It's not an easy game, but the lack of variation will deter many from going for Mechanic of the Year.