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The humble Amstrad CPC has had something of a second lease of life over the past few years, with regular game releases from retro-publisher Cronosoft and Spanish development group CEZ Games Studios. The system has also become an increasingly popular 8-bit machine amongst demo-scene coders - in fact, I first came across this game whilst trawling through the demo archive at www.pouet.com, my interest sparked by the positive feedback left by many scene members.

Groops! is the first release from new CPC developer Binary Sciences, and in short it's an awe-inspiring debut. It's essentially a tile-matching game at heart, but Binary Sciences have succeeded in giving their variation of a popular theme a unique twist, and as a result Groops! is a fun, balanced and original little CPC game. The aim of the game is obtain the highest score possible by exploding 'groops' of similar tiles - the bigger the groop, the bigger score it's worth. As you clear tiles from the screen, tiles that were stacked above fall downwards - creating more groops in the process. As you've probably guessed, this is where the logic comes in - you'll need to plan your moves ahead in order to set up larger groops to beat the high scores.

As with Mind Blast (another 8-bit logic game reviewed in this issue), first impressions on loading Groops! are very positive - the presentation is flawless, with language selection options, a colourful title screen, comprehensive on-screen prompts and excellent AY chip music. There are three different play modes available; Normal, Fast and Challenge. Normal mode presents the player with a screen full of random tiles to explode away until there are no groops left. Fast mode is essentially the same, but with only half a screen of tiles, which makes it harder to obtain a high score. These are basically 'free-play' modes; there's no level advancement and the game revolves around beating your previous scores. However, the Challenge mode is where Groops! really shines.

In Challenge mode, the aim of the game is to reach a set score level to enable you to progress onto the next, more complex puzzle. Unlike the previous two modes, the 16 levels of Challenge mode are pre-determined and designed puzzles that increase in difficulty - and it's this part of Groops! that you'll spend the majority of your playing time. Progress is saved through the 16 stages via a password system, and the difficulty curve is just about spot on. It's all very original and fun while it lasts, but the truth is that 16 levels isn't really enough for a game of this type - when you've completed the Challenge mode there is little to draw you back.

Technically the game is up there with the best puzzlers from the Amstrad's commercial life - the animation of the tiles is a really nice touch, the in-game instructions are clear and concise, and the soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. The joystick and keyboard controls are intuitive, and the multi-language options open the game to a wider audience - it's all very professional, and it's clear that an great deal of work went into the development of the game.

With future releases already announced, Binary Sciences are definitely a group to watch out for. Aside from the Challenge mode being a little short, the game is flawless in every other respect and has proven to be a great little time killer here in the RGCD office - in fact, this and Mind Blast are probably partially to blame for this issue taking so long to finish!

(Note for users unfamiliar with the WinApe emulator: Unlike other 8-bit emulators, WinApe doesn't support the usual drag-and-drop auto loading of games, so here are some basic instructions to how to load Groops. After starting the emulator and being prompted with the Basic/Burnin' Rubber screen, press '1' on the numeric keypad. Then press both the 'Ctrl' and 'F1' keys together and select/open the Groops! disk image from the file explorer window. Type 'CAT' at the Basic prompt and after the disk catalogue is displayed just copy and type over the RUN"GROOPS text and press return. Groops! should then load. I hope this helps - being unfamiliar with the CPC it took me a while to work this out!)