Amstrad Computer User
1st August 1985Traffic
Now here's a different type of game. Ever wondered why Hyde Park Corner was such a jam ? This game will deepen your awareness of traffic congestion and your sympathy for coppers on windmill duty. You are given the job of controlling the lights in various parts of the city of London, a job normally done by a little grey box that sits by the traffic lights and changes them to red when it sees your car. Unlike the real traffic lights, you have to keep the lengths of the tailbacks to a minimum. Quite simple really isn't it? No, it isn't.
Ah, you think, this is simply a matter of whizzing round with your joystick, changing the lights as fast as possible. It just doesn't work that way. Some cars have little indicators on and are only content with travelling in that direction. Of course, you have to unblock the right exit first. This requires a strategy. Things are made easier by all the drivers being good, law abiding citizens who don't jump the lights. The scene is viewed from above, all the vehicles being depicted by various sizes of smoothly moving little boxes (what you might call a box car?). Points are scored for letting boxes across the screen. The bigger the box, the bigger the bonus. Just like one of those razzamatazz quiz shows on ITV.
When you get a largish number of points, you are given a promotion to a more difficult patch. This is not the sort of game for playing after having driven home and tackled the fast lane of the Hammersmith flyover single handed. Like the Hammersmith flyover, the air is filled with the noise of traffic and the honks of over enthusiastic drivers. As usual, the quantity of honking is proportional to the length of the queue.
This game is for joysticks only, but it does work on a '664 and has an option for colour or monochrome but you try spotting a red light on a green screen. This is the sort of game that can grow on you. Unless, of course, you happen to be one of those poor bobbies who does windmill duty at Hyde Park Corner all day.