Home Computing Weekly


Arcadia 64

Publisher: Imagine
Machine: Commodore 64

 
Published in Home Computing Weekly #50

Having seen this game advertised for just about every machine except the C64, I often wondered if the opportunity to master it on one would come my way.

Arcadia consists of you, a galaxian-style laser base and various ships coming at you in fleets. The object is, as usual, to blast anything that moves. If you do not manage to get everything when directly above you then you get killed by missiles from them. This makes the game tedious and impossible at times.

The game uses 16 sprites (or at least it seems to). You may remember that the C64 claims you may have up to 256. The fault is that only eight may be displayed each time the screen is scanned. The result is a constantly annoying flicker in the graphics. This could be the car amongst the pigeons because the rest of the program is quite well-written.

The game loaded perfectly each time, though there is one slight snag - it takes 20 minutes! The instructions are adequate and cover all aspects of play.

This is not exactly my type of game. Although I like space games on this theme, this one has less lasting appeal. However, after saying that, it is worth considering because of its low price.