Big K
28th February 1984
Forty-Niner
Stop the presses! Hold the front page! Hi-res graphics on the ZX81 without any additional hardware! Oh gosh, oh wow. Like truly awesome, man!
Seen on any other micro Forty Niner probably wouldn't excite much comment but what we have here seems to be a genuine breakthrough in games software for the venerable ZX81.
Forty Niner is your basic digging game where you, a miner, are tunneling about for gold nuggets. Giant rats are on your tail threatening each of your three lives. You have two main weapons in your arsenal. You can cause small cave-ins to block their path or run over a snake's nest, releasing it to get the rats (a game where snakes are on your side, whatever next?). Meanwhile, on the surface a nasty Gremlin is gradually working his way towards your tunnel entrance. If he gets into the mine you're finished!
Collect enough nuggets and an entrance opens to the next, harder level.
What is, of course, amazing is that the whole game appears on-screen with graphics that wouldn't disgrace the Spectrum. All the elements of the game are rendered in detailed, recognisable shapes and move in relatively smooth, flicker-free action. The rats scurry, the snakes squirm and the miner runs and climbs. You almost except colour and sound as a matter of courses!
Control is, well, all you can expect from the ZX81 keyboard. But you can re-define your own control keys.
