Previous Next

This brilliant game from Taskset runs on the C64 and is based around a Computer Aided Design (CAD) exhibition which goes wrong.

You'll have to beat 8,192 hostile screens to win the day and this could take some time, so you'll have to be dedicated - but it's fun and very addictive. In fact, for £9.95 (cassette) or £12.95 (disc), you could have yourself quite a bargain.

The graphics are extremely good and very clear, reminding you a bit of the drawings archiects are supposed to do all day. The sound is also unusual and convincing, a real change from the run-of-the-mill, zap-bang-blast style sound effects.

The idea is that our environment is increasingly planned and constructed with and by machines, and so it is up to the software and operating systems of those same machines to interpret the rules by which we want to live.

Once you've loaded the tape, you press Fire to start, before getting pursued by what look like giant sponges and Sony Walkman headphones.

The action always give you something different and you can use the keyboards or a joystick.

The story itself centres around the 25th CADCAM International Show, where the guys from a company called Enviro UK have booked most of the first floor's space.

The game pitches you directly against the design machine, and you control the droid MAD-2, whose task is to find and repair the memory bank containing human needs.

He can only get to the final screen by finding his way through all the nasty environments the machine designs, and how he does this is up to him.

He must somehow remove everything, with some routes being short cuts and others a total disaster. Interestingly, he has a habit of disappearing down holes, but you can always find him, as he is the only object to look like a big teddy bear.

If he isn't careful, he lies down and gets shot at, but he's quite a good shot himself if you get a decent joystick. All in all, Cadcam Warrior is fast, very playable and even moreish - rare qualities for games these days.