Personal Compuer Games


Paranoid Pete
By Ubik Software
BBC B/B+/Master 128

 
Published in Personal Computer Games #12

Paranoid Pete

You play the role of Paranoid Pete, the intrepid space farmer who has travelled to the planet Owwayondah in an effort to grow new crops and send them back to Earth in order to solve the world's chronic food shortage.

The game starts when Pete (who looks disturbingly similar to those characters on the Weetabix commercial) is beamed onto the planet surface by the USS Harvester. He has to plant the seeds dropped from the Harvester by digging holes in the right places and filling them.

However, the planet is infested with Mega-Wibblies, the greediest critters in the universe and Pete has to fend them off the plant and himself by banging them over the head with his trusty shovel. Once the plant has successfully grown, an arm extends from the Harvester to take it to the processing plant. Pete is beamed back aboard to ensure everything runs smoothly but those nasty Wibblies have managed to materialise in the ship and try their best to destroy the Ubik-wheat packs.

Paranoid Pete

Once again, Pete must use his shovel to protect the cargo which will ultimately decide the future of civilisation as we know it. Once eight boxes have been processed, the whole procedure is repeated with more wheat plants and more Wibblies.

The meticulous attention to graphical detail makes this game good to watch as well as to play. The key response is very good and the movement of the Wibblies and screen layout have been carefully thought out. It's fun to see the wheat grow leaf by leaf as you control the large multi-coloured character very well animated to bash the green Wibblies over the head. A shame that a hall of fame feature is missing, but most importantly, this game is totally original. Hoorraaaaaaay!!

Simon Rogers

I thought this was brilliant. Pete was well drawn, as were the incredibly annoying Mega-Wibblies, although these looked just like characters from Cookie. Well done, also, was the animation - Pete's bovver boots moved very smoothly.

Paranoid Pete

This game was frustrating without being too annoying, although I found the controls were a bit complicated to start with.

Despite this, and the fact that it only has two different screens, I think that this is one of the best games I've seen for the Beeb. If it isn't a hit, I'll eat my wellies.

Robert Patrick

The main disadvantage of the Beeb is its lack of memory. Most people who know about computers realise that this leads to a play-off between graphics quality and program length. In the games field, this means it is hard to produce a game which is both graphically excellent and still offers the player variety and a challenge. Paranoid Pete is no exception.

Shingo Sugiura

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