Your Sinclair


Four Minutes To Midnight

Author: Mike Gerrard
Publisher: 8th Day
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Your Sinclair #18

Four Minutes To Midnight

Good to see 8th Day emerging again, with its recent HRH and now this re-release of one of its original titles - if my memory serves me well, and it usually doesn't, wasn't this the first software house to put out budget-priced Quill'd adventures?

Two versions of the game are on this enhanced tape, with graphics on side one and without graphics but with expanded text on side two. Many new features have been added as well in this tale where you have to recruit a gang of helpers to save the world from the usual mayhem and destruction. Type in HISTORY (NAME) and you'll be given a potted history of the character named, while STATISTICS (NAME) gives you details of their skills and strengths. PARTY will let you know which characters you have with you at the moment, and you get people to join or leave you by using RECRUIT (NAME) and LEAVE (NAME).

The world's on the verge of destruction, as the title implies, and it's not a pleasant place to be. The lengthy descriptive passages include lots of gory prose along the lines of "the air is full with the stench of putrefaction" and "the strong sickening smell of death rises from all around." As with many of the 8th Day titles, the problems are sometimes cleverly worked out - and this one starts with you having just two moves to stop a car plunging into a petrol station and exploding in a ball of flame. Can you save the driver and make him your first recruit?

Then you make your way to the nearby city with its looted shops and rat-infested tunnels - and make sure you read your location text closely, as you'll need to examine some of the objects mentioned.

Graphics are very good, as far as I've seen, and beautifully detailed: flashing neon signs and lorries with indicator lights going. The text is livened up with the occasional UDG too, and all in all the program's nicely presented.

Mike Gerrard

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