Previous Next

Well I never, *another* Pac-Man clone, but do Oric owners need another version of the game? What we don't need is several almost identical versions. IJK's Ghost Gobbler is very similar to Ghostman and Tansoft's Oricmunch isn't much different either.

Unless you've been on Mars for the last couple of years, you'll know that the aim of the game is to go about a maze, gobbling dots and avoiding ghosts, eating bonus fruit if possible. There is only one maze in this version, which is well laid out. The graphics are uninteresting and blocklike but smooth, and colour is used imaginatively. The maze is white, and features a green pac-person and ghosts (this colour changes as you progress through each level). There isn't a joystick option or any chance to change the controls.

There are several good points - the keyboard control is excellent, action is fast and smooth, the ghosts are intelligent, an almost obligatory Hall of Fame is provided, the volume of sound is controllable and the appropriate arcade noises are supplied.

Even so, I feel that the Oric isn't used to its full potential. If there were a few more mazes, multi-player options and better graphics, it would be a much better buy.