I do not know if anyone will ever play right through the entire collection of goodies that Acorn Electron World now boasts. I've played through almost everything and, indeed, have typed in most of the Acorn User and Micro User programs, playing them to test they are free of error. But there are a lot of games hiding away on compilations that may not otherwise be found. Snow Vaders, by Martin Hollis (Yes, the same Martin Hollis who wrote Father Christmas, I suspect!) is one of them. It originally featured on The Micro User 2.10, hiding away towards the bottom of the menu.
As you can probably guess from the title, it's a Space Invaders clone with a Christmas twist. Deal with the mutant, descending Christmas trees and snowmen, blast away Rudolph and Prancer and try and avoid the falling snowballs that threaten the two igloos at the base of the screen. My initial thought on seeing it today was "Why hasn't anyone thought of this before?!" It plays a nice rendition of Jingle Bells throughout. The invaders are constantly wiped and then re-appear is frankly pants but if you haven't seen it before, you might enjoy clearing a level of these nasties - particularly if you're in a "Bah, humbug!" mood over this festive season.
20th December 2010
