Personal Computer News


Goodness Gracious
By Beyond
Commodore 64

 
Published in Personal Computer News #043

Fire Eater

Ever fancied controlling a dinosaur? Well now's your chance, as you travel back in time to a world ruled by dinosaurs. Being somewhat smarter than the average Tyrannosaurus Rex, these dinosaurs hurl fireballs from their mouths, and keep all the other nasties at bay.

Objectives

These prehistoric beasts get their power from a magical red gem, which everything else in this strange world is trying to get hold of.

You control the dinosaur, and make it spit fireballs at appropriate moments to eliminate every other life-form that appears on the screen. Should the magical gem come under attack three times in the same location, it is moved off to a new hiding place and must defend it all over again.

Goodness Gracious

Initially you have to spit fireballs at a devil-like figure that approaches from the right - subsequent devils come at you at slightly faster speeds. The next level has you at the top left of a flight of stairs, another leads up from the middle of the screen to the right. Down this hop aliens at which you have to spit.

There's a little competition being run in conjunction with this game. If you manage to survive five attacks from little monsters bent on taking the gem and running, you can write in to the Beyond team and tell them how the attacks begin on level 6.

In Play

You might be forgiven for concluding this is a good, unusual game.

Goodness Gracious

Unusual it may be, but good it certainly isn't.

I doubt whether many will enter the competition, because this game becomes so tedious.

Your dinosaur cannot move about the screen nimbly dodging other creatures and spitting at them as it's rooted to the spot. Instead, your solitary control key in the whole game is the space bar. This must be pressed down for an interval of time, and on release the fireball wobbles its way across the screen; the distance travelled is related to the length of time the key was held down.

Goodness Gracious

The supply of fireballs is limited to ten per game, with a bonus level of one fireball for every alien successfully demolished.

Of course, you could always go for expert level, and start off with 5 and get 2 extra for every hit.

Verdict

Not destined to become one of the all time greats in the C64 Hall of Fame, and for a new company trying to make its way in the computer software scene this is a very disappointing start.

Mike GerrardPete Gerrard

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