| ★ AMSTRAD CPC ★ GAMESLIST ★ FLIPPIT (c) SPLASH ★ |
| A100% | The Amstrad User |
Them's a couple of guys out Perth way who are beginning to make the game writing establishment look up and then look up again. They call themselves Splash and if we can use the bucket of water analogy, in the computer games market, the ripples at least are becoming noticeable. Their latest piece is called Flippit. The moral of Flippit, if games can be said to have morals, is that there is a hard and An easy way to do everything, l lavc a closer look a: this Splash creation and you'll see what I mean. Flippit is a brain teaser somewhat in the Rubik's Cube; genre. For instance, in both of these the closer you think you're coming to solving the puzzle, the further in many eases you really arc. Those readers with a history of mental instability steer dear. In essence, Flippit is a simple game. The playing screen includes two boards of sixteen tiles each, both arranged as squares (4 by 4 tiles). One board is yours, the other smaller one is the solution board, which you must attempt to replicate exactly. To replicate means to get each of your sixteen tiles facing the same way as those on the solution board. Your aim is to do this by flipping the least tiles in the shortest time possible. There is, of course a hitch. Flipping a tile will cause a number of others to flip as well. Worse still, which tile when flipped will cause which other tiles to flip i« not always Immediately apparent. I'm going flippin' nuts! lb make things visually slightly less stressing, our friends at Splash have put pretty little pictures and patterns on the tiles - one on the top .side and one on the bottom side. And so one doesn't get bored the patterns change each level. Are you still wilh me? There are two ways I discovered, of playing. Be stupid and flip any tile at anytime in the hope that you'll crack the solution by fluke, or think before you start and proceed cautiously, watching what happens to the other tiles as yon flip one of them As I mentioned earlier, flipping; one file will cause a set of others to flip at the same time - no more than four (I think). To be honest you could never memorize the effect of a flip on any tile for any level in the game, so isn't that a bit unfair? Yes, except there would appear to bo still an easier way. Now I wouldn't want to spoil all the fun so it suffice* to say this: think laterally - think like the programmer who had a sense of humour. Level one, for instance can be done in one move if you know wh ich tile to flip. Came play can be controlled in one of three ways (as far as I know): using the arrow keys to select a tile and the spacebar to flip, using the mouse, or using an Amstrad style joystick plugged into the back of the keyboard. Using the mouse proved rather difficult, because the tile cursor was ULTRA responsive to any movement. Mention is actually made in an accompanying flyer that Flippit was not originally designed for a mouse. However the keyboard and the joystick proved quite satisfactory.
When you buy Flippit, make sure you don't lose anything from inside the box. Among other bits of paper is a crafty little thingy called a 'Paper Dongle'. It consists of a piece of card board with rows of letters and numbers printed on it, wrapped in a piece of paper with a few holes in it. This is important! When you run the game you are asked to set box 41 (the first hole) on the Dongle to a given number and then type in two other corresponding letters you will see through two of the other-holes. If you can't do this or you've lost the Dongle the game will go no further and you will politely be told where to go. Splash don't like pirates, it would seem! To keep you coming back, there arc a whopping 105 preset levels to conquer, and it you still aren't satisfied. Flip pit then continues by creating randomized versions of each level. So you really never run out of levels. In view of the fact that one can quite easily get carried away playing this game, our concerned friends at Splash incorporated a Boss Key into the program. Now, should the company president walk into the office right in the middle of level 99, just press [F10] and you're working assiduously on an elaborate spreadsheet! Press [F10] again and the game resumes. Never did a spreadsheet look so good. There is clearly room for improvement in the graphics deépartment. I was a little disappointed here and didn't feel justice had been done. At times the two patterns on cach tile got very alike, making it a little difficult to distinguish between the pattern on my board and the solution board next to it. All said and played, Flippit is an enjoyable game that will lost your skill and your understanding of spatial relationships. It won't win awards for excellence but Flippit will in it's own way keep you satisfied. It's Australian and fun and makes ine dread what Splash have coming up. TAU |
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Page créée en 195 millisecondes et consultée 2534 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
