Previous Next

Life on distant colonies and outposts can be pretty dull. The Galcorp Leisure Corporation provides leisure activities for these desolate outposts and bases many of the games around the special low gravity conditions found on the far asteroids and outposts. One of the more popular games devised by the Galcorp Leisure Corporation is low gravity Glyding. Played in a large room, two players compete against each other. Each player controls a large 'bat' and the aim is to stop the ball from hitting your back wall, while at the same time trying to hit the ball onto the other players rear wall. The bat is against the player's wall and covers roughly a tenth of the area.

Play begins with player one taking a service. Play continues with the ball to-ing and fro-ing between the two players until the ball strikes the wall behind one of the competitors. When this happens the opponent scores five points and the loosing player restarts the game with a service. Play continues in this mode until thirty-five points are reached and the first person to reach this gets to be the winner.

There are varying levels of difficulty in the game ranging from slow or adagio as it's described in the menu to pretty fast or vivace. You can also after the computer's skill from low to high. There is a two player option to enable you to compete against a human partner rather than the computer.

The screen is yellow monochrome although the colour can be altered if you fancy a change of led by the keys or joystick and can be maneuvered upwards, downwards and from side to side. Pressing fire serves the ball to start, although your bat must be covering the ball before you serve or else you'll miss and five points will automatically be awarded to your competitor. The screen is separated into two halves. The two section shows the court as seen from each player's vantage point looking down to the opposite wall. The score is shown to the right of the main screens and when thirty five is reached the winning player gets to type his/her name in.

Control keys: definable
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair, Cursor
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: minimal
Graphics: slowish but quite effective
Sound: a few spot effects
Skill levels: six separate speeds, three computer skill levels
Screens: one main playing screen

Room Ten is a very strange game, the idea may be very simple but it is very difficult to get into. If you stick with it however the game can become fun and very competitive, especially in two player mode. My only real nag about this one is that as with any sports simulation you can get good at it so it is easy to beat the computer, this only takes about twenty minutes of solid playing so it can become boring very quickly. The graphics are good but a little misleading at times which can have disastrous effects. The sound is fair but not exciting. I wouldn't recommend it too strongly as ft can get extremely monotonous if you haven't got a friend to play with.

The graphics are quite strange, and it took me quite a while to get used to all the lines that were flying about the screen. Sound is a bit on the basic side, with only a few beepy spot effects. I found the game itself very boring to play after only a few games. The speed of the game is quite slow - even on the fast speed - and not helped by the unresponsive key actions. Room Ten is not one of the most addictive games I've ever played, but I'm sure will appeal to some members of the Spectrum squad.

No, I'll refrain from making the very old joke that's now flying around the office all about Pong in a box, etc. Room 10 isn't all that bad a game. The 3D effect works well, and the game moves at a frantic pace sometimes. Playability is good, and though I don't think I could spend a lot of time playing it, it's the sort of game that I'd play when there's absolutely nothing else to do. It's not amazingly revolutionary, despite the very good way that it handles graphics, but I think that it might be worth getting hold of.