Producer: Electric Dreams
Retail Price: £7.99
Author: Mev Dinc

The evil Wardlock is a genius. Unfortunately, the Wardlock's talents are misplaced and instead of using its genetic experimentation capacity for the good of mankind the machine known as the Wardlock done just the opposite - creating horrendous genetic experiments.

Two by-products of his dabblings are Solo, a synthetic man, and Nejo, a baby. These two outcasts are doomed to wander the strange world of the Mechlabs forever, unless they can escape. But since the Mechlabs are infested with byproducts of the evil Wardlock's previous experiments, escape is far from easy. However, Solo has a plan: if he can expose the evil workings of the Wardlock to the outside world, then the experiments will come to an end and the Wardlock will be destroyed.

The Globjewels and Bloberites are uncomely creatures which wander around the Mechlabs terrorising everything that comes their way. As Solo and Nejo try to find a way out of the nightmarish world in which they are imprisoned, they are constantly hassled by these inhuman beings. Fortunately, Solo is in possession of a nifty bubblegum gun which can be used to temporarily disable the nasties encountered.

The Mechlabs consist of three vast dimensional mazes. There are four sections altogether: the Ice zone, Fire Zone, Tech zone and Veggie Zone. These are distinguished by different colours. Solo must trek through the Mechlabs, searching for power crystals. Once found, these can be taken to a computer room and used to reprogram the computer causing it to open exits to the Outside World.

Unfortunately, Solo has more to worry about than just the Globjewels and the Bloberites: tagging alongside him is the baby, Nejo. Lacking a natural mother, Nejo attaches himself to the nearest object, which happens to be Solo. Looking after a toddler is one thing, but trying to keep him in perfect health in a place as fundamentally unhealthy as the Mechlabs is something else! Solo must watch out for nappy rash and make sure that the baby has clean daipers every now and then. Babies must also be kept spanking clean, so water and bath facilities must be found and used along the way. Taking Nejo through the maze is quite a problem, since he often finds it difficult to move around obstacles. So, Solo has to guide him quite a bit.

A readout at the bottom of the screen provides hints from time to time, and the status area at the to monitors oxygen levels and the condition of the baby you're looking after.

For the first six minutes of a game, the nasties are fairly harmless but if you touch them during this period they get really heavy.

COMMENTS

Control keys: left 6, right 7, up 9, down 8, fire bubblegum 0, pick-up Q, drop W, pause SPACE
Joystick: Kempston, Interface II
Keyboard play: quite responsive
Use of colour monochromatic play area
Graphics: detailed and well animated
Sound: clever tune at the beginning
Skill levels: four
Screens: scrolling play area

Well the graphics ARE quite pretty, and the sprites move quite well, but I don't really think that Prodigy is a very good game. The control keys remind me of the days when it was different to have control keys that fitted your finger patterns, but nowadays its more common to find a game with redefinable keys. Argh!! I reckon the music would be more aptly labelled noise, as it is absolutely awful. The game itself is almost playable, and therefore, quite addictive, but I don't think that It'll be a big success. 'Nuff said?!

Who fancies a challenge then? You'll certainly get one if you buy this game because it is very, very hard, I grew more disappointed the more I played Prodigy, not due the game itself but more to do with my inability to play it successfully. The graphics are surprisingly good. The playing area scrolls smoothly and quickly and the characters are excellently animated and detailed. The various component parts of the playing area are also very pretty. The sound is brilliant: there is a wonderful tune on the title screen and the effects during the game are great. If you manage to work out what you have to do and then get past the nasties in the first six minutes then the game is a little easier to play, but if you mess that part up then you've had it. Controlling your synthi-man is a little on the tricky side as the keys used are all in a line, but after lots of practice it gets better...

The first thing that struck me about Prodigy was the very smart way in which it is presented. The graphics are all very well drawn and very detailed. All of the characters are very well animated and move about very smoothly. The sound at the beginning of the game is superb - even better than the Ping Pong music, it features loads of very realistic drum effects and synthesised sounds - that I presume are sampled, but still belt out of the Spectrum speaker at a fair old wattage. I felt that the game was quite unplayable to start with, as the small screen and consistent dying made it very hard to get used to. Once mastered, the game is exciting to play and quite addictive. If you can get over the limited play area and awkward key positions then you'll find quite a good game, one definitely worth a look at.

Electric Dreams
£7.95

How would you feel if you were made out of Synthiflesh™? Just one step up on the evolutionary scale from the inside of a Big Mac. Any moment you could be sliced up and have a limp bit of lettuce slapped on top of you. Well that's just how Solo the Syntheman feels. And that's why he wants to escape from the mechlabs of Wardlock, his creator.

Contrary to what you might think, even a synthetic man has feelings. When he saw that baby stranded in the factory (probably left by his mother on a tour. Tsk!) well, he just had to bring him along. Nejo, for that is the puckered little peanut's name, is but a toddler. He needs his mommy. He needs his bottle. He needs ka-ka and pee-pee (Yeurch!) in fact, he's pretty hopeless, but being the big synthisofty that he is, Solo can't ditch the poor snotty wretch. So as well as wrestling Wardlock's minions, he must root out bottles of cow'juice and assorted relief for Nejo. I dunno!

Solo needs infinite patience to solve the tyke's little problems... and so will you! Every time you fail to repel one of Big W's henchblobs and he bumps into you, you are flung, as if you were attached by synthielastic, back through the maze to your starting point. Phew. Tres infuriating, non? And you snap back time after time after time... This constant failure to get anywhere should make it more addictive, eh? No, it flippin' well doesn't! After pinging back from whence you came for the fortieth or fiftieth time, your enthusiasm for getting baby Nejo home and dry is as dampened as his nappy. As for Solo's ineffectual armourments, well... If you've ever tried subduing big wobbly mutant opticians' nightmares with a ping pong ball gun, you'll know what I mean when I snort "forget it".

If it was a whisker easier to play, this could be a good arcade adventure. But it's not, making it just an infuriating chore of a game

Label: Electric Dreams
Author: Mev Dink
Price: £7.99
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Electric Dreams has released some moderately bizarre titles in its time. Bizarre good and bizarre bad.

Nothing however, has prepared the world for Prodigy. Prodigy takes bizarre to a whole new plateau. There is virtually no element of the game that is not out-to-lunch, AWOL or otherwise not playing with a full deck.

To begin with what few previous reference points are available. It looks a little like Molecule Man meets Sweevo's world. Knight Lore top-down edge-on 3D. but scrolling landscapes chock-full of odd geometrical shapes and populated with utterly odd aliens and unexpected banal items - like a shower in the middle of an abstract landscape. Got a mental image? Well it's not like that, there's more...

There's this baby. You're an alien. The baby crawls, it needs feeding, it must be washed. You need to find milk. Finding milk is not a grandiose objective to have as the basis of a computer game so you also have to find some power keys.

Find a computer, dump the keys in it and escape this nightmarish world. Thus allowing the baby the freedom to grow up into a computer programmer, or something equally worthwhile. The problem is, looking after the baby is a constant distraction - all too frequently you will have to interrupt your quest for the keys to find milk or wash it's nappies (chuck the kid under a shower). It'll follow you around but only if you move slowly. Otherwise it'll get lost. This can be a problem when hoards of failed experiments in creation are attacking you.

OK, what's all this about experiments then? Well the baby was a result of weird experiments in creation (I've never heard it called that before) but there were some less successful attempts. These include things that look like vacuum cleaners, things that look like paintbrushes and things that look like beach-balls. Whatever - they are all nasty, the only difference is some are stupid, nasty and others are vicious and nasty.

Confused? There's more. There are four general areas. One is entirely made of ice - guess what, you slide around a lot - another area is mostly fire - you get burnt. The veggie zone seems a innocent garden tended by a mutant gardener and the final area, the tech zone, contains curious machinery.

There are a million ways to die, hundred ways to get hopelessly lost, dozens of mazes in various guises (sometimes changing whilst you are in them) and almost no chance whatsoever you'll ever solve the thing. One piece of advice - make a map.

What else? well there is a teletype machine that sends you messages on what you should do.

Nothing is ever simple. There are transporters but they don't act in a very predictable way - you could end up almost anywhere.

There are so many odd things to discover in this game. If. for example you fall into one of the pits of fire that crop up occasionally you immediately zoom into the nearest shower to cool off. No option.

Is a game featuring baby nurture as a prime element going to crack it on the street? The temptation to blast the little brat is strong but, anyway, your blaster can do no more than stun. Learn to love the kid.

What is this game? It looks superb, beyond Rasputin in wild visual imaginings but with a much more complex plot. There seemed to be no more permutations of monsters possible - yet here we have several new species. There seemed to be no more games ideas to develop - but here are a dozen. And it's got sound effects like Iron Maiden tuning up.

I almost think Prodigy is too clever by half but in the end I come back for more, and more.

So, what is this game? Let's say brilliant. Like nothing else. If you liked Cylu, Knight Lore or Molecule Man that might mean you have the right sort of mind for this, but in the end you're on your own.

This is the sort of game that makes you write like an NME journalist. Why? it's like that.

MACHINE: Spectrum/Amstrad/C64
SUPPLIER: Electric Dreams
PRICE: Spec - £7.99, AMS - £9.99/£14.99, 64 - £9.99/£14.99
VERSIONS TESTED: Spectrum/Amstrad

Thought you'd seen the end of non-violent games with the demise of Automata? Think again because here's Prodigy. True to their habit of releasing unusual and different games, Electric Dreams has come up with an Ultimate style 3D arcade adventure with some original twists.

Prodigy features Solo the Syntleman and Nejo the baby trapped in a world they never made. Solo wants to escape the nightmare maze of the Mechlabs, created by Wardlock the Machine Sorceror.

The Mechlabs are split into four zones. There's the ice Zone, Vegie Zone, Fire Zone and Tech Zone. Each of the zones are connected by a teleport system.

Solo and Nejo need your help to find the four Power Keys which unlock the doors to the outside world and knock out Wardlock's security system.

Solo has to keep baby Nejo washed, fed and protected from the ghastly flesh experiments called Globewels and Bloberites.

The screen display shows a view from one of Wardlock's security vid-cams. Around the side of the monitor are four rotating cubes representing security system indicators. You must disable these by finding the security units and taking them to the computer control centre. At the top of the screen is a readout which shows Solo's oxygen supply.

This can be replenished by taking Solo to the Ice Zone and popping him in a few oxygen bubbles.

There are also displays for Nejo's food level and the condition of his nappy! There are showers in the Mechlabs and you can wash him. Luckily this game wasn't written in smellivision!

At the bottom of the screen is a teletype machine which relays messages and information as you play.

Nejo will follow you around, but you don't need him with you all the time to complete the game. Nejo will quite happily play by himself for a while if you want to take Solo off or a solo mission. Just watch the teletype for messages and remember where you left him.

The game is packed with logical puzzles - and illogical ones! - which have to be solved if you are to get Solo and Nejo out of the labs.

The zones are all colour coded and can be reached using the teleport system. My favourite is the Vegie Zone populated by odd vegetable creatures.

Many other parts of the graphically interesting landscape are animated as well. A nice technical achievement this.

Prodigy will remind Ultimate fans of the time when that company used to produce entertaining and original games. It will provide a genuinely different challenge to all arcade adventurers and will prove high on lastability - mainly as it's NOT an easy game. Not easy by any means.

The original theme and the different graphics make Prodigy stand out from the mass of arcade adventures. Check it out.

Electric Dreams
£7.99

"Prodigy is a game which demands compassion" claims the packaging. Compassion? Yes, 'fraid so, not just shooting things. You are Solo a synthetic man, and as well as escaping from the Machine Sorcerers nightmare maze (packed full of genetic mutants), you must guide the human baby Nejo to safety. Walk slowly enough for it to follow, wash it in the showers you'll find, give it milk by zapping the chef. All together now: aaaah!/bleuch! (delete as applicable). This subject matter is one of several areas where Prodigy is rather original. It combines various gameplay elements to create a unique "feel".

The graphics are nicely defined and detailed in the 3D Knight Lore style; furthermore, they scroll rather than flick between locations, remarkably smoothly. There are four distinctive zones (fire, vegetation, technical and ice), each with its own graphics. A nice touch is the way Solo slides in the ice zone. The moving part of the screen is irritatingly small, however. Sound is certainly unmissable: loud noises which are astonishingly coming from Spectrum, if not tuneful.

Prodigy is marred, for me, by its difficulty. The mutants are extremely hard to avoid once near you, and instead of diminishing your energy, collision sends you back to the nearest teleporter or the start, whichever is nearest. This is unbelievably frustrating, and matters are not helped by the awkward (and not redefinable) key combination. If you persevere then this game has numerous nice features and puzzles to offer - but for most people it is initially too off-putting.