Big deal? Not really

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A recent offering from Incentive Software is Millionaire which runs on both the BBC Micro and the Electron. The game is cassette-based with a caption on the sleeve encourag ing punters to 'take on one of life's little challenges and become a millionaire'.

If only it were that easy. With this unconvincing state ment in mind, I proceeded to sample the efforts of authors John Bent and Steve Benfield.

The objective of Millionaire is to run a software publishing house and to make a lot of money from the sale of cassette-based software.

Strategically, your main problems are to ensure that you have an adequate supply of cassette tapes to sell, and a reasonable marketing initiative, though your success in this matter is somewhat random as far as I can judge from my own experiences.

Depending on your earnings, the game will upgrade or downgrade your residence, displaying an adequate pictorial representation of your abode.

The program is somewhat addictive, but it lacks the intellectual and business challenge to sustain it after a few hours or so. Most of the game relies on Mode 7 text screens, though there are also some sales graphs and pictures to liven it up a little.

There is also an option within the game to deal with a character called Honest Harry who, typically, is anything but honest.

You may obtain pirated software from him if you are lucky enough not to be caught out.

Overall, I should think it would not suffer too much from the attentions of software pirates - not even the Honest Harry type. Unless you are really interested in this sort of pseudo wheeling and dealing, it might prove a little uninspiring for those of you expecting another intellectual adventure-type challenge.

Chris Chan