PLAYING ITS CARDS WRONG

MICROMEGA, known for its selection of 1K ZX-81 games, has launched into the Spectrum market with a series of games which will work on both machines.

Monte Carlo is a cassette with two games on it. The first is Blackjack, in which you must try to break the bank - your computer opponent. The simulation has good graphics and the computer plays well but the reason for putting yet more card games on to a computer, especially one of Spectrum potential, is difficult to appreciate. To give the cassette a fair run for its money we moved to Craps, an American dice game in which you must throw a 7 or 11 on the first throw to win. If you throw a 2, 3, or 12 you lose.

The game is excellent and very difficult to beat but the same criticism can be made as for Blackjack. It would be better to have a pair of dice and throw them instead of waiting for the computer to load to program to do it.

The second Micromega Spectrum cassette is a little more taxing on the mind and demands more concentration. Dominoes, so far as we know, is the first simulation of the game to be put on to a computer.

The simulation is good and so are the graphics but, unfortunately, the same can be said as about the first cassette. It is difficult to understand why traditional card and dice games are put on to a computer time and again. There are already hundreds of versions of Blackjack, Pontoon, Twenty-one, and Craps available for Sinclair machines.