Rescue The Damsons(?)

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FOR all you chivalrous knights of the 21st century a new challenge has been launched. This time it is not some fair maiden that has to be rescued from a high tower but a basket of damsons (in distress!)

This is the plot behind Bouncing Bill from Oak Software. You are given three lives to negotiate a conveyer belt system of moving walls by jumping through holes in them.

Your task is to reach the top of the screen and seize the basket of damsons suspended above, with points awarded for each wall passed.

Double points are lost for a retreat, accidental or otherwise. Simple? It is at first, but the added bonus you earn begins to be paid for as ghosts haunt their way about the screen.

Slowly but surely things begin to hot up as red hot fireballs chase after you. adding a totally new meaning to the phrase "heat-seeking"!

The ominous message "...now it gets more difficult" at the successful completion of each sheet is no understatement. But with three lives and the nerve to play on. quite a high score can be amassed.

Solitary balloons occasionally appear in among all the confusion and are well worth chasing for their bonus potential. Falling through the holes or missing them when you jump poses quite a problem at times.

Although erring is not lethal at first when you are just stunned, you can soon find your unconscious body falling further down as yet more holes open up beneath you.

If you don't recover in time you eventually hit the floor a fatal blow.

The graphics are quite good, although for overall visual effect the screen is somewhat void of action in comparison with most arcade games.

Sound is less intense than in the majority of the more recent arcade hits, having more in common with the simple thudthud of Space Invaders.

All in all this game is yet another victim of the times, being surpassed by the oncom ing stampede of really high quality software.

It is much more suited to the patient player than to a whizz kid with fast reactions, since true success is more dependant on good strategy than speed.

Tarquin Thomas