Zzap
1st July 1991
Publisher: Zeppelin Games
Machine: Commodore 64/128
Published in Zzap #75
Jocky Wilson's Compendium Of Darts
The basic format of dart games is now well established, basically it consists of your regular dashboard with you controlling a rather unstable hand - timing when to fire the dart is as vital as getting the hand over the right target. So after the graphically spartan, but very playable Jocky Wilson's Darts Challenge (73%, Issue 47), what more can you do?
Well, Zeppelin have gone for coding in all the odd little variant dart games played in weird, out-of-the-way places like the Kremlin (Phil's local). The six games on offer here include darts versions of football and bowls!
In Football you can't score until you get a bullseye; thereafter doubles count as goals! while in Bowls, one player throws a jack dart, then each player has to get as close as possible to it for maximum points.
Scram has one player going for points, while the other player closes off sectors with his darts, roles then reverse for the next round. Ten Dart Century gives you ten darts to get as close to 100 as possible, while Shanghai restricts gameplay to a single sector. There's also a traditional world championship 501 darts game. All the games can be played at three skill levels and in one or two-player mode.
The actual dartboard graphics are virtually identical to the original, all that's changed seems to be the darts are blue rather than yellow. But graphics and sound are never that important in this sort of game, and while the basic dart-throwing follows the standard format, the new variants add some nice gamesplaying variety.
It's still rather limited unless you've got a friend to compete with, but if you're on the lookout for a darts game this fun program is one of the best around.