Producer: Thor
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Steve & Chris Kerry

As a fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk is a celebration of a country-bred idiot making good through never knowing the limitations of his own idiocy - or perhaps, more fairly tale, it's the story of how mankind prefers to believe in the magical properties of things rather than in good solid common sense. Jack, of course, is the lad who took his poor family's cow to market and on the way met a man who offered to buy it from him for a bag of magic beans. Though ostracised by his understandingly distraught old mother, Jack plants the beans and a giant stalk grows up to the sky which Jack climbs in search of fame and fortune. As luck would have it there is a giant's castle up there and after several adventures, Jack steals the giant's treasure, escapes and plunges the evil monster to his death by axing the beanstalk as the giant chases down it after him. It you ask me, my sympathies are with the giant, Fee Fi Fo Fum.

So much for the intro, by the time the game has loaded all the agricultural drama is over and the beanstalk is in full bloom. There are several screens, the first being the base of the beanstalk. On each screen there is an object to be collected, without which you cannot get off the screen. On the first it is an axe. The problem facing the player is (a) discover the route up the screen - any other than the correct one will result in death, and (b) avoid the various lethal creatures flapping, slithering and jumping around.

Each screen has different graphics, which means learning each one as you go, and the overall object, of course, is to collect the money, the golden goose and escape before the giant gets you.

COMMENTS

Control keys: W/E left/right, O/K up/down, Q = jump, P = fire
Joystick: Kempston, AGF, Protek
Keyboard play: responsive
Use of colour: very good generally with only a few attribute problems
Graphics: very good
Sound: good, Microspeech slows game down
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 4
Screens: multiple
Originality: undoubtedly a very original game

Jack and the Beanstalk is one of the most frustrating games I have ever played. The graphics and movement are very good, so too is the sound and colour. Unfortunately the instructions don't make the point that it is impossible to get off the screen without having collected an object first. On discovering this, life isn't made any easier because of the finickiness of the program in only allowing the minutest deviation from a pre-planned route through each screen.

Read the instructions carefully - I didn't and got stuck on the first screen for almost two days. Graphics are very nicely drawn and are very colourful. The colours of some moving items have been poorly chosen, eg. a green background with yellow ink. Most of the game is frustrating due to the laws, don'ts and cannots. The sound is good but tends to drag on. This game has plenty of playability potential if you overcome the frustrating parts.

Jack and the Beanstalk has Currah Microspeech facility, but I found a lot of what's said is indecipherable and it slows the game down enormously. Another irritation is the between-lives routine which is prolonged and very soon drives you mad with frustration. The game would have improved several points in my estimation if I had been able to cut it out and get on with the next life. Graphics are very colourful, well drawn and lively and the 3D effect has been used well on the second screen - almost too well, since jumping has to be calculated to the millimetre - not easy in 3D. In the end this is an excellent looking game which is almost totally spoiled by the over-cleverness of the content and which expects a lot of patience from the player.

GIANT ANTICLIMAX

Memory: 48K
Price: £5.95
Joystick: Kempston, Cursor

Once upon a time Jack was going to market to sell the family cow. But on the way he met a sales rep from Thor who offered him a copy of Jack and the Beanstalk in exchange for the animal.

Jack said "Whoopee", and took the game home.

Jack's mother was hopping mad when she found out what Jack had done and sent him to bed with no dinner. So Jack loaded the game and began to play.

He was very impressed by the graphics on the first screen, which showed a giant beanstalk climbing into the clouds. Avoiding the spider and the birds, he collected his magic axe and began to climb. After falling off about forty times he got the hang of it and soon found himself at the foot of the giant's castle. Unfortunately there seemed to be no way of progressing further; some of the blocks could be climbed but as far as getting up the whole wall went, Jack could find no way of doing it.

While playing the game Jack noticed that the colours were not very well organised, as they spilled over onto other parts of the picture, and the moving objects flickered, causing his eyes to ache. When his mother came in the next morning she found Jack huddled under the bed, completely blind and muttering to himself.

Moral: just because a game has pretty pictures doesn't mean it's worth more than a bag of old beans.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
SUPPLIER: Thor
PRICE: £5.95

Fe-Fi-Fo-Fum. I smell the blood of an Englishman! Transported light-years back to the days when fairy tales were my main reading matter, I loaded the cassette.

The game matched my expectations and I ventured with Jack up the beanstalk to a magic land where giants, treasures and magic abound.

Remember Jack and the Beanstalk? Jack's mum sent him to the market to sell Daisy the cow. On the way he was conned and swapped her for a handful of beans. With a clip round the ear, he was sent to bed and the beans thrown out of the window where, lo and behold, a giant beanstalk grew overnight.

Next day Jack made good his escape, legged it up the beanstalk and went to seek his fortune!

For those of you who can't remember the rest of the story, your chance has come to play it out in a superbly illustrated game. Only this time you have the power to control Jack's destiny - to steal the goose that lays the golden eggs so that Jack and his mum can live happily ever after.

Jack starts his adventure at the foot of the beanstalk. With his eyes peeled for gigantic spiders and kamikaze birds, he nips up the beanstalk - one false move and he plunges to the ground. Certain objects must be picked up on the screen to enable him to move on - a fact not mentioned in the instructions.

Having mastered the beanstalk, Jack has to scale a brick wall into the castle, free the goose from her cage and then tackle the giant.

The graphics are superb, with each screen resembling an illustrator's drawing. The game is also difficult to master as each screen poses it own problems.

Jack and the Beanstalk is definitely a game well worth buying.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Kemp, Curs
FROM: Thor, £5.95

We Spectrum owners have already had nursery rhymes like Jumping Jack and children's stories like The Snowman converted to games. Now Thor have decided that that panto classic Jack and the Beanstalk is worthy of similar treatment.

Basically the tale has become a graphic adventure in the same vein as, but nowhere near as complex as, Atic Atac. You control a cute-looking character called, logically enough, Jack. Same as in the pantomime, it is your job to infiltrate the Giant's castle and steal his treasure.

First, though, you've got to climb the beanstalk. This is not as easy as it seems - until you realise you have to have the axe which is lying fairly conveniently on the ground.

Key movement is fairly easy but with a Kempston joystick matters are a little more difficult. The fire button controls jumping which means that the five movement controls are on the joystick whilst fire is left forlornly on the keyboard.

The levels above the beanstalk are a little more difficult as it takes a long time to figure out exactly where you can move safely. This can lead to the game becoming boring fairly quickly as the gap between each life or game can become unbearably long.

This is because the program is compatible with the Currah Microspeech unit and because of this the computer wastes quite a lot of time sending superfluous code to a device which, depending on your set-up, may or may not exist.

I enjoyed playing the game and I'd be pleased to be given it but it's not one I'd rush out and buy.

The graphics are extensive and very well drawn, with a twisting spiral to the sky on the first screen. Your enemies seem to have been in intensive pre-battle training as they speed around the screen, their swift movement only spoiled by flickering colours as they touch each other, although this is a facet of many Spectrum games.

Sound is more than a little repetitive, as a grinding little tune croaks along throughout the game. There are some nice gurgles and shrieks as you meet your doom which help the game along.

Overall, an enjoyable program which I could happily return to again and again although it does lack that something extra that makes a great game.

STEVE SPITTLE

Like platform games, the interest here is in working out how to conquer each screen. But the graphics and feel are completely different to, say Manic Miner. Each screen is very colourful and pretty, but there are only four to work through.

Also, the game suffers from a certain imprecision which is frustrating. You can seem to be hit by an alien when in fact you haven't been.

Despite the original idea, I didn't find the game very compulsive or enjoyable,

CHRIS ANDERSON

YOUTH'S HIGH-RISE CRIME

We look at the latest Spectrum releases to discover just what Jack was doing up that beanstalk.

We all know the story of Jack, the boy whose magic beans grow into a beanstalk up which he climbs to steal the giant's treasure at the top. Thor have turned this story into a very impressive computer game.

Playing the pan of Jack you must climb the beanstalk, move around the giant's house, and take the treasure. There are, of course, problems. Strange creatures bounce around the screen, killing you if they touch you, and it is all too easy to fall to your death either by tumbling off an object or leaping carelessly off the screen.

The strength of Jack and the Beanstalk lies in its graphics. Each screen consists of a well-designed and detailed picture which remains static while a small amount of creatures move across this background. This is an excellent technique, and one of which we will doubtless see a lot more during the months to come.

Having overcome surprise at the graphics Jack and the Beanstalk proves to be a very enjoyable game. The instructions do not make it clear that one object must be collected from each screen before that screen can be left, and it is not immediately apparent why Jack should take the axe before climbing the beanstalk. Routes are also not obvious, but must be deduced by trial and error, which is frustrating and unnecessary. Most annoying of all is the long pause after a life is lost while the same little tune is played again, and again.

It is disappQinting that a game on which such attention has obviously been lavished should fall down on minor details. Nonetheless, Jack and the Beanstalk has an originality which is rare in the software market at the moment.

Jack and the Beanstalk costs £5.95 and is produced by Thor Ltd, Erskine Industrial Estate, Liverpool, Merseyside.

Thor (Computer Software) Co. Ltd
Erskine Ind. Est.
Liverpool L6 1AP
£5.95

Superb cartoon graphics, the old Spectrum really can do some impressive things.

Currah Speech is used quite a lot and very effectively in this game. Some words need a bit of electronic translation, but it is an added extra dimension.

Joystick control is provided although I couldn't find a jump feature while using it - it's probably there, but the instructions don't give any clues and without it the game is near impossible. The keyboard layout is very good and I preferred to use this system.

Great presentation of the story in a scrolling redefined character set.

Colour and sound are used well and the action is fast and furious, again you have to find your way around by experimenting and I found this a little illogical. For instance on the first screen there is an axe. Now, going by the story, the axe is used at the end to chop down the beanstalk so shouldn't be required just yet. In fact you cannot successfully climb the beanstalk until you have picked it up! Still this is a minor quibble about what is an excellent game. I also found that movement needed a bit of practice to get used to as Jack is very sensitive to the keys and often overshot the area I was intending him to visit!