Your Sinclair


Raster Runner

Author: Jonathan Davies
Publisher: Mastertronic Plus
Machine: Spectrum 48K/128K

 
Published in Your Sinclair #54

Raster Runner

Remember the Light Cycles bit in Tron? Remember all those Speccy versions of it that came out years ago? Remember how they were simple but terribly addictive they all were (most of them, anyway)? Well, here's another one. And, what's more, it's completely brilliant!

The idea's simple enough. You control a little wiggly line, and another player controls another little wiggly line. You've got to make your line as long as possible without crashing into anything. Boring, eh? Not at all. There are piles of different strategies, and Raster-Runner incorporates a few new ideas too. First of all, as well as seeing the whole playing area at the top of the screen complete with wiggly lines and not much else, each players gets a scrolling close-up. For added excitement, try sellotaping a bit of loo-roll or something over the main window. This means that split- second decisions need to be made because you're never quite sure what's going to scroll on next.

Also, you're given the option to play against the computer. There are three difficulty levels, all of which are completely impossible (of course). And finally, pressing Fire make you invincible for a few seconds. This is for emergency use only, as you can only do it a couple of times.

Spookily, I couldn't stop playing it - it's just so good. In fact, I'm typing one-handed at the moment. The other's playing Raster-Runner. Actually that's a lie. But it's really, really good anyway, and well worth a week's pocket money. (Or three weeks' if your dad's anything like mine. Or you work for YS.)

Jonathan Davies

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