Dragon User


Chicken Run

Author: Margaret Norman
Publisher: Impsoft
Machine: Dragon 32

 
Published in Dragon User #019

Hatch

Farmer Folly runs a chicken farm - rather a small chicken farm, as there is only one chicken in it. You have to guide the chicken to the nestboxes, where she will auto-brood and lay an egg, and to the feed trays to replenish her energy with corn. You also have to guide Farmer Folly to collect the eggs before they hatch into hungry chicks, and to fill the feed trays.

There is a baddy as well, of course - a fox appears at intervals through holes in the wire, intent on eating the chicken, or one of the newly-hatched chicks. Having a chick eaten is quite a good thing, as this prevents it from depleting the corn supply. If the fox eats your chicken, however, one of your three lives is lost.

The game is controlled by joystick only. The joystick lever controls the direction in which the chicken moves, and the fire button controls the farmer. This technique of controlling two moving objects with the same ioystick doesn't seem to be terribly effective; I found it impossible to persuade the farmer to do anything except run aimlessly up and down a ladder unless the fire button was held down continuously, when the farmer's movements were no less random but more purposeful.

The graphics are good, though I would have liked to have more than one screen. The sound effects are initially impressive, but soon become irritatingly repetitive.

On the whole this is an interesting game, but not, I think, one with lasting appeal.

Margaret Norman

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