The Not-So-Great Wall

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The Great Wall is a game set in days of old when battles raged and you, as an army runner, are vital in keeping the communication lines open. At least that's what the game's inlay card tells you. In reality, the game is an implementation of the popular Hunchback game, and a very poor one at that.

It is your job to guide the runner across the screen dealing with a variety of hazards such as rocks being hurled at you, battlements to jump over, pits to be got across and particularly vicious soldiers with sharp pikes!

The game boasts eight skill levels each containing 65 of these sections - 512 sections in all - and a choice of four accompanying background tunes.

The game runs in Mode 5, restricting the display to just three colours on a black backdrop, and giving rise to a very bland and boring background on which to play. The character animation is amateurish. Some of the game objects, particularly the rocks, move an entire character square at a time, resulting in very jerky movement. Screen flicker is also evident.

The collision checking between screen objects leaves a great deal to be desired. I often thought I was a gonner only to discover the threatening nasty would pass straight through my character with no apparent ill effects. Conversely, on other occasions the mere presence of a rock some distance away brought on a premature attack of death.

This is the type of game that was around when the BBC/Electron was first launched and software was scarce. It is both unoriginal and poorly written and has very little to offer.

Mike Ginns