Infernal Combustion

Producer: Automata UK
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £6.00
Language: Machine code
Author: C. Goodwin

Automata Towers, that well known TV series, is on fire, and all the residents are threatened with flame out, a sizzling end to another fine day in tower-block suburbia. It's all the fault of that little cult, the Piman, whose soaring star has fueled the flames. Your task is to help Walter Hose put out the flames and save the inhabitants from becoming barbecued spare ribs. Despite his name, Walter has only a fire bucket and taps to help, unless he can get to the fire extinguisher. The method is to grab the bucket and run to the nearest tap, fill the bucket and then douse the flames which are breaking out all over the place. A bucket full will do the trick for a few fires, but it needs to be replenished frequently. Care must be taken to ensure a needy tap isn't isolated by burned out staircases. Being a gentle bunch, some residents actually keep dynamite, and this should be removed to safety as quickly as possible!

There are also fire extinguishers to use, a pink elephant which dances beautifully, and doors which may be used to avoid the worst of burns. Points are scored for inhabitants and valuables saved.

COMMENTS

Control keys: left/right - alternate keys bottom row, Q-P/A-ENTER up/down, numerics to use an object, BREAK to drop, CAPS to open/close door
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair 2
Keyboard play: reasonable layout despite handful, responsive
Use of colour: good
Graphics: although small, generally good, animated and good looking fires
Sound: fair
Skill levels: 1 with progressive difficulty
Lives: 3
Screens:
Special features:

Piromania will obviously not be an epic, but it is quite a good idea and is very playable. It gets infuriating, especially when the piromaniac comes along and starts the fires again. If you leave a fire burning it will spread around all the building and eventually bum through the floors. I haven't found any dynamite, which is a surprise, as I got quite far with the game. I quite enjoyed it, and it will probably have lasting interest for me.

I don't think I've ever seen a game quite like this - it's certainly different. The idea is so simple even a moron could play this game, just get your bucket, fill it with water and put the fire out Saying this, the game does have a little more content than just putting a fire out I must say, it gets ever so frantic and panicky on the higher levels - and whatever is a pink elephant doing in a house?! One niggle about the game is that Walter is a bit over-responsive, or perhaps it's him just making a frantic dash to put the fire out, and he slides as he comes to a stop. Nevertheless, I found this game very playable and very enjoyable, but I don't know whether to recommend it, except for its sheer simplicity of play. A good family game.

Piromania is a fairly original platform game. The graphics are not very large, but they work well. The game has that quality that tends to make it addictive. Quite a few control keys are required, even with a joystick. Overall, I would say this 'hot' number is quite hottish.

The aim here is to run around a house putting out fires, using either a bucket of water or a fire extinguisher. The bucket, of course, needs filling up from the taps. You can pick things up for bonus points.

Mark: The idea of putting out fires is quite good, but the finished product doesn't really match. The speed, sound and colour can be described as pleasing. MISS

George: This is an original scenario for a computer game, but it could have been improved by making better use of colour and graphics. HIT

Robert: The graphics could be better, colour is used well to make the fires and all the action seems very real, but not overpowering. Unfortunately, the scoring is rather difficult to understand and, for me, still remains a mystery. MISS

MACHINE: Spectrum 48k
SUPPLIER: Automata
PRICE: £6.00

It'll take some skillful playing to get your name into the Piromania Hall of Flame.

The game is set in Automata Towers and you have to help Walter Hose to put out the fires. You can travel around the blazing building by some fairly fast keyboard-digging or joystick wobbling. What you're after is a fire extinguisher or a bucket of water. Then just press the right key to douse the nearest fire.

The actual graphics for the fires are quite realistic with good flickering effects. Then, when extinguished, they turn to just a puff of smoke and fade away to nothing, accompanied by a wonderful hissing sound like when you pour water onto a hot frying pan.

There are taps around the building, so when the buckets are empty you can fill them up again. But extinguishers will disappear when all the foam has gone.

Quite why Automata should store dynamite in their offices, I don't know, there is some around and these must removed to prevent explosion. There are also bonus points for rescuing valuables and even more points if you do it faster than anyone else.

If you fancy this game, I suppose you'd better hot-foot it down to your local software store. It's one of Automata's better games, but still has an awful PiMan single the other side of the tape. The game runs with a Kempston interface or Sinclair Interface 2.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Sinc
FROM: Automata, £6.00

Another of Automata's games featuring their cult character the Pi-man. In this game he is not under your control - in fact he is very much the bad guy of the piece. The Pi-man, it seems, has become an arsonist.

The layout of the game is rather basic, consisting of ladders and platforms to represent a building which is rapidly becoming an inferno. Your man, a chubby, well designed little fireman, must rush around putting out the fires which appear randomly on any of the platforms, most of them having been started by you-know-who. He must also open doors to set free the fleeing inhabitants.

The fires are put out using the fire extinguisher or the bucket (which you pick up by moving over them). However these soon run dry. The bucket can be filled at the tap (which is on the lowest platform) and there is often more than one extinguisher on each screen. The doors are opened simply by moving through them.

Your only help in this red-hot scenario is from a pink elephant which occasionally stampedes across the upper-most platform extinguishing the fires.

Bonuses are achieved for each inhabitant that escapes and for valuables and dynamite collected (these objects appear irregularly on any of the platforms). The sheet is completed when all the fires are put out and the next sheet has a different layout.

The graphics are fairly small and a little flickery, but are well designed and colour is iArell used. The sound is continuous and of a good standard.

Piromania is probably Automata's best effort to date, but I do find this 'Pi' fixation a little ridiculous. A game with little variety but a great deal happening all at once. Good fun, but it may not light your fire.

This is driving me wild! Everywhere I look there's a fire starting or something to be collected. My bucket's empty and so are the fire extinguishers. Where's that top? Oh no! That girl's trapped by the blaze.

Like I said, Piromonia is driving me wild. It's fast, furious and fiery. I have no doubt this will do a bundle in the shops, just as it deserves to.

ROBERT PATRICK

The graphics, though rather small, are cute and well animated. I especially like the angel which flies up to the heavens when you lose a life and the pink elephant (funny thing to keep in a house) which jumps its way along the top floor.

Overall this is one of the better Pi-man games.

RICHARD BONIFACE

At first it seemed to be just a fancy version of Space Panic - but that turned out to be a false impression. This is a very enjoyable game in its own right.

The graphics are really very amusing, with creatures like the pink elephant who prances comically across the screen. The sound is hilariously gruesome - the people squeal as they're consumed by the ever-expanding fire.

STEVE SPITTLE

SPECTRUM SPILLS

The thrill or the chase gripped Bob Chappell in these action games for the 48K Spectrum.

INFERNAL COMBUSTION
£5.95
Strange Loop, 124 Sylvan Avenue, London N22 5JB

Fighting raging fires hasn't figured in many games I can recall so this may be the first.

The scene is the inside of a multi-storey building, each floor joined by ladders. Scuttling around the uppermost floors are the occupants who appear to be in a bit of a flap. No wonder - fire has broken out on several of the floors.

Down on the ground floor, standing quite fortunately midway between a tap and a bucket, is our little hero. Grabbing the bucket and pausing only to fill it from the tap (this boy is no fool), he has to sprint around the building hurling water at the outbreaks. The idea is to extinguish all the fires and proceed to the next tougher screen where the arsonist has struck again.

While you are busy firefighting, the occupants try to make good their escape by fleeing, in their own haphazard, panic-stricken way, down to the ground floor exit. However, they can't get past any blazing area nor through any locked doors - you must help by opening doors and all this while nipping back and forth to refill your bucket.

The sample tape lacked a cassette inlay (still at the printers), so I don't know why strewn around the floors were several cans marked with an F, and other odd objects. Possibly for bonus points? From time to time, what appears to be a pink elephant cavorts across the top floor, but for what purpose I am unsure.

Should you come into contact with the flames, you are immediately turned into an angel, a fitting reward for your heroic efforts.

Despite having no instructions for play, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Movement of the hero was just a trifle stiff in one or two places, but that apart, the animation and effects were of a pretty high standard. Quite addictive, too. This original and entertaining arcadde chase is well worth seeking out.

BORZAK
£6.95
Channel 8 Software, Preston (0772) 53057

A funny-looking purple alien with a proboscis that Cyrano De Bergerac would have gasped at, Borzak is a stranger on a strange planet. The creature has to stroll along the surface, dodging various vagaries of nature as he goes.

There are six levels of play, all much the same except for the hazards. Borzak has no defence systems and can only jump or duck to avoid oncoming traffic as he moves.

At ground level, he must avoid holes, large speckled frogs, snakes and grasping hands. Above are flying ducks, dragonflies and dangling spiders. The game is quite good fun but difficult to complete without skipping levels since the hazards are generated randomly, often resulting in a combination that Superman couldn't beat, let alone a pacifist with a big nose. It's worth buying - Borzak's a lovely character.

STOP THE EXPRESS
£5.95
Sinclair Research, Camberley (2076) 685311

Chasing games have a habit of taking place either in a maze or somewhere dank and dismal underground. Bringing fresh air to this species is Stop the Express.

An express train has been hijacked by the Redmen (no, this isn't cowboys and Indians). Your job is to make your way along the carriages, unlock the motorman's cabin and stop the train.

You control a cute, ginger-headed lad who starts out on the roof of one of the coaches of the moving express. Hang about too long and the first of many Redmen (similar to our hero but beetroot coloured) appears on the scene and hurls a knife.

Fortunately, not only can you duck down but also run, jump and (your trump card this) release a snakebird. With a bit of luck, the latter will knock any pursuing Redmen off the train to earn you a respite. You run along ten coaches, leaping gaps, dodging birds and tunnels, until you can safely climb down inside a carriage.

Stage two has the Redmen as before, aided and abetted by strap-hanging nasties and bouncing objects. You can also do a bit of swinging on the straps. I never survived this stage and so didn't reach the driver's cabin. The only drawback is that there are nine keys controlling your hero (each with an alternative) - playing with a joystick (ZX II interface only) makes it easier.

Graphically, the program is superb. The train's headlong rush and the animation of the characters are delightful. Sound effects are minimal but with such an original environment and exciting action, this has to be among the top chase games.

ORIEN
£5.95
Software Projects, Liverpool 051-428 7990

That's enough wind through your hair; now down to more familiar territory with Orion.

Back in maze country, you control a small rocket-car which has to roam around 25 caverns in search of stolen androids. Each cavern is an aerially-viewed maze, populated by creatures and four of your androids.

Green meanies must be avoided as they are lethal on contact unless your shields are activated. White meanies are quite nutritious but gobbling one up causes your scanner to malfunction, making the wall of the maze invisible.

A simple game with decent graphics and sound, it won't set the world ablaze but offers a good chase, nonetheless.