Still breaking out

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Once upon a time, just about in the dark ages as far as computers are concerned, there was a simple little game called Breakout. In this game you controlled a bat and had to hit a ball which bounced off various blocks and destroyed them.

The Breakout idea vanished into the wilderness for about five years but has now re-appeared in a number of guises. Alternative's Round Ones is the latest addition and comes firmly at the budget end of the market.

In this version, the bat has become an Assault Transport and the ball is an Assault Laser Launch. Many of the blocks are simple and require one hit of the ball to destroy them. Others, coloured yellow, require two or more hits. Red ones increase the speed of the ball while black blocks release driblets that can increase the size of the bat - although it might reduce it at other times - or they may cause the entire screen to explode.

Destroying all of the blocks on one screen will move you to the next. When you have completed eight screens the next set is automatically loaded from the cassette. There are some 100 or so in all of which the second and subsequent sets of screens introduce more difficulties.

Lasers fire at you and multi-coloured conflictors can cause havoc with the ball. Your force field protection will come in very useful, but this is in limited supply and must be used sparingly.

The quality of Alternative games has certainly improved recently and Round Ones will make aworthy addition to your collection. Ihave one major gripe about the game. It features some really clever multi-coloured backgrounds which look superb, but can act as almost total camouflage for the ball. I feel that the game would have been better with simple plain colours behind the balls.

Rog Frost