Producer: Silicon Joy
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Jim Elvery, Andrew Miller, Mark Alexander

Silicon Joy is a division of Kevin Tom's Addictive Games, and it has recently released a few programs, of which Trio is one. Trio consists, appropriately enough of three separate arcade games on one tape, which means each game costs you a fraction under the budget price of £1.99. They are Dracula's Castle, Ascot and Chaotic Caverns.

In Dracula's Castle you guide a little black man around several rooms and corridors. Doors to the rooms are closed and you score points by opening as many as possible and by turning on as many lights as possible. The rooms are filled with swarming bats which will stun you. Finding and then eating garlic will turn you green, and while you are this tasty shade you can eat bats which also increases the score. Every hour on the hour (about 1 minute and 20 seconds real time) Dracula rises from his coffin and dashes around shutting doors, turning off lights and killing you if he discovers you. A large grandfather clock ticks away the game minutes and a chime is heard before Dracula rises.

The second program on the tape is Ascot, which as the name implies is a gee gees game set on the hallowed turf and may be played by up to 6 players. Each player is given £100 at the start and the player with the most money after 6 races is the winner. The smallest bet allowed is £1 and all bets must be in whole pounds, other than this there are no limits. Betting allowed is WIN, PLACE for a horse to come either first or second, or EACH WAY. When it comes to betting you are shown the number, colour, form, name and odds for each horse. Form is a line of six digits which indicate where a horse finished in its last six races, with the rightmost digit being the most recent race. If you wish to bet you enter the amount plus a letter to indicate which of the three types of bet it is you are placing.

Six runners are offered before the screen cuts to the track with the six runners animated along its length. Then after the race the results are displayed. Chaotic Caverns is a sort of grid runner-cum-painter game. A series of screens follow on from each other, showing a simple grid of white on a colour ground. You control a small car which leaves a trail of colour behind and the object is to colour the entire track while avoiding the chasers. These begin as two and increase by one as you progress from screen to screen. The screen layouts also become more complex.

COMMENTS

Control keys: vary from game to game
Joystick: Kempston
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: average
Graphics: below average to average depending on game
Sound: fair
Lives: 3 except in racing game

The first offering, Dracula's Castle is a fairly reasonable game but not a game that will keep the average player interested for long. It may be of appeal to the younger player. The graphics are fairly simple, as is to be expected. Ascot is a typical, bet on the horses game. This has simple graphics, it's in BASIC too. Again, hardly addictive. Chaotic Caverns is a very simple concept using extremely simple graphics but it is frustratingly challenging, which does lead to a certain degree of addiction. It's great for sharpening the reflexes. Due to this latter game, the pack is just into the average rating.

Trio cannot be great value for money as the old saying goes, you pay for what you get, and if three games are put on one cassette for £5.95 then the games cannot really be of very high quality. This is borne true with this compilation. What is odd about this collection is that the games are very different from each other and not related one tiny bit to each other. Okay, this does give some selection but l think that people who buy games would have preferred to have similar types of games together instead of three unrelated ones. The games themselves are not of a high standard, just very average. The graphics on all the games are quite primitive, although Dracula's Castle does have some nice characters. Chaotic Caverns seems to me to be a very primitive machine code game, one that would be ideally suited to the ZX81. Ascot, where does this come into the collection it's really the odd man out? Overall, not really great value for money, and I'm sure there are better, cheap games on the market.

Compilations are hardly new, and with very few exceptions have never really provided good entertainment or value. Trio is sadly no exception to the rule. The most fun is the last one, Chaotic Caverns, but it looks ever so old. None of them is likely to hold the attention for more than a few minutes really.

MAKER: Silicon Joy
FORMAT: cassette
PRICE: £5.95

Trio is a collection of three programs starting with Dracula's Castle which consists of running around a maze turning on lights while avoiding bats. In order to kill bats you have to eat garlic.

You are under a constant time limit which can be seen on a grandfather clock at the bottom of the scree. When your time runs out Dracula will awake and tour the castle looking for you.

Ascot is a gambling game based on horse racing. You have a choice of betting on a win, place or each way after which the race will commence. Not a very original game but probably the best of the three.

Next is Chaotic Caverns which is a cheap version of Amadar where you go around a maze leaving a trail behind you. After clearing the maze you progress to the next level, basically the same thing with a different maze.

All three of these games look like type-ion games. This is one time I would save my money.

Three games on one tape, hence the title. The first of these is Dracula's Castle. The scenario is a maze of rooms (Pacman style) inside the castle which has bats flying everywhere. While Dracula sleeps in his coffin you have to rise from your bed and rush around turning on the lights to score points. If you happen to bump into a bat you are stunned, unless you find some garlic first, which turns you green and allows you to eat the bats. Every hour (about 1 minute in real time) a clock strikes and Dracula awakes and rushes around switching the lights off. If he finds you, you are killed. An excellent game considering that it's only one of three.

The next game in the trilogy is Ascot, a horse racing game. In this you have to study form before each race and starting with your stake money can either bet to win or place. Once you have placed your bets the race is shown with some well drawn but fairly simple graphics.

The third game is a simple maze of corridors. As you move your man around, you leave a yellow trail, and the idea is to go down every corridor. To stop you is a series of nasties which zoom up and down trying to kill you on contact. If you manage to clear the first maze, another maze appears which is a little longer.

All the games on this tape are very enjoyable and should keep everyone of all ages amused.