A&B Computing


Roadrunner

Publisher: A 'n F
Machine: BBC Model A & B

 
Published in A&B Computing 1.02

In Roadrunner you drive a vehicle around a rectangular course as other cars pass in opposite directions. Now and again drivers shoot at you, aiming to damage your tyres, fuel tank or the twin lasers with which you may fire back. Every so often a group of strange undocumented shapes zoom past. These enemies are shaped like parking meters and also shoot at you. Other problems include re-fuelling and 'smoke' which causes some cars to vanish.

Roadrunner is a Basic game. The graphics of the cars and landscape are quite good, but the animation is unconvincing. Your car does not turn from side to side - it leaps sideways without swerving at all! As you cross from one side of the road to another your car suddenly flips to face the opposite way. There is no "cornering" effect so that you can turn suddenly through a right angle without ill-effect. The animation is slow and jerky. It is possible to drive sideways through other cars. This usually means damage to your vehicle, but the situation is worse for the other drive, whose car generally splits or vanishes altogether.

Individual sounds and graphics in this game are quite good, but it does not come together as a whole at all. The keys used are not well chosen and there are no alternatives. The display contains an elementary spelling mistake, and the whole game seems to have been rushed to the market without adequate testing.