Electron User
1st February 1985
Swag is a rarity in arcade style games - it is a genuine two player game with the option of the second player being the micro. The aim is to acquire jewellery to the value of £250,000 by moving your man to randomly placed jewels and returning with them to your house.
If that sounds easy, then don't forget that your opponent is after the same treasure as you and is quite prepared to shoot you to get it. You may also have insurance company robots on your trail. Any collision with them means a quick, empty-handed return home. Of course you have the same advantages as your opponent. There is a different type of robot after him.
Robots can be converted from one kind to another by shooting them or by travelling to a special symbol which occurs on the screen from time to time.
Attempting to keep order in this lawless area are the police. There are three police cars which score points for your opponent if you go near them.
If you shoot one, it relentlessly follows you until you drink a can of beer and shoot it again. You can use that to your advantage by stopping the car near your opponent's home.
With all this shooting you will probably run out of ammunition, but they sell it at the bank, provided you've got gold.
Regrettably, in translating this program from a BBC Micro version, one or two things have been forgotten, The instructions give a most unsuitable group of keys to player two, but fear not, the actual keys are O (up), L (down), + (left), * (right) and RETURN (fire). More seriously, you do not seem to be able to redefine the keys as you might wish.
The game is provided with many options: Sound on or off or a start for either player.
I personally worry about the glorification of theft and violence. Is this what we really want for our teenagers? The trouble is that like so many of these games, it is addictive.
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