Your Sinclair


Friday The 13th

Categories: Review: Software
Author: Gwyn Hughes
Publisher: Domark
Machine: Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Your Sinclair #5

Friday The 13th

A blood curdling scream rings from your Spectrum - then... silence! Not even the drip, drip, drip of blood. Just a message saying that owing to memory restrictions sound and music are missing from this version.

Still, that leaves the terrifying silence as you play with only the hum of the power supply, the wind rustling the trees, whistling through the empty house... the creak as you slide from your chair, not stiff as a board but bored stiff. Yes, undoubtedly Domark has created a computer nasty - though not in the sense it undoubtedly intended.

Anybody who has ever seen a Friday The 13th film will know the plot - mass slaughter with a variety of novel weapons. So do Domark allow you to play Jason and massacre the all-American brats in the summer camp? They do not! They expect you to save this bunch of butch bozos and highly strung wimps. This you do by running round the camp site and moving over them. They will then make for the place of sanctuary that you initially established with a cross - only Jason may come and scare them off so you'll need to round them up again. Ever felt like a sheep dog?

The reason this sort of movie never scared me was that I cared less than zilch about the victims. Well, if you thought the cardboard cut-out casts were bad, wait till you see their sprite equivalents. Am I really supposed to sympathise with a badly drawn silhouette in a landscape that looks worthy of Sinclair Basic's finest?

At heart there was the idea for a decent strategy- adventure here - Argus did it with Alien. Instead Domark's managed to create yet another program to match the ineptitude of A View To A Kill. You get the chance to use a chainsaw, knife or other weapon on Jason who is disguised as a friend - but by then the only thing you'll want to kill is the program cluttering up your ROM!

Gwyn Hughes

Other Reviews Of Friday The 13th For The Spectrum 48K


Friday The 13th (Domark)
A review by (Crash)

Friday The 13th (Domark)
A review

Friday The 13th (Domark)
A review

Friday The 13th (Domark)
A review by John Gilbert (Sinclair User)

Friday The 13th (Domark)
A review

Other Spectrum 48K Game Reviews By Gwyn Hughes


  • Street Hawk Front Cover
    Street Hawk
  • Roller Coaster Front Cover
    Roller Coaster
  • Elevator Action Front Cover
    Elevator Action
  • The Armageddon Man Front Cover
    The Armageddon Man
  • Convoy Raider Front Cover
    Convoy Raider
  • Catch 23 Front Cover
    Catch 23
  • Realm Of Impossibility Front Cover
    Realm Of Impossibility
  • Call Me Psycho Front Cover
    Call Me Psycho
  • Gunfright Front Cover
    Gunfright
  • Cyrus II Front Cover
    Cyrus II