Personal Computer News


Operation Gremlin

Author: Wendie Pearson
Publisher: Wintersoft
Machine: Oric 16K

 
Published in Personal Computer News #062

Who Is Whom?

Who Is Whom?

This program is a schizophrenic's dream - it gives you the chance to be eight different people which gives it a nightmare quality that's original and appealing.

Objectives

The aim is to clear the space city Syron of gremlins and in so doing you encounter various problems like being hit by flying rockets, surrounded by aliens and trying to find out not just where you are - but who.

In Play

Operation Gremlin

There are nine levels of difficulty and the graphics capabilities of the Oric are used to the full. You're shown as a small character in the centre of the screen and as you move around, using the cursor keys, the maze-like city walls scroll around you.

The best starting strategy is to dodge round, making sure that each personality has a weapon. This way, your eight different characters can give the gremlins a really bad time.

To swap from one character to another you just press the relevant number. If that character is dead, you just have to move on.

Operation Gremlin

You can get a status report on whichever character you happen to be, giving your name, status and so on. This is useful, as each character has to keep up its strength by eating various bits of food left lying around the city.

Press P to pick up a weapon, but be warned. Some weapons make the gremlins multiply instead of killing them, so test with caution before use. You can't be greedy with weapons either; you're only allowed to carry one at a time.

Commands are straightforward; E for eat, D drop and so on. From time to time you'll get warning messages telling you of malfunctions in various vital parts of the city.

Operation Gremlin

You must try to find the relevant location and effect repairs before the situation gets out of hand.

While you're dealing with an alien, or trying to find some location, you may hear a tone. This tells you either that you're close to an alien, which you can see anyway, or it may mean that one of the other characters is under attack, in which case you have to rush from character to character, trying to discover who's threatened, then make them escape or destroy the aliens.

It's this aspect that really makes the game a cut above the rest.

Verdict

This program gets full marks from me for inventiveness, addictive quality and use of sound and graphics.

It should give hours of fun to anyone with enough time to make the most of it.

Wendie Pearson