Producer: Phipps Associates
Memory Required: 16K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Barry Cornhill

A bull has escaped in the streets of a Spanish town where you are holidaying. Being fearless, you offer to persuade it back into the arena by placing fences to divert it, and use yourself as bait to attract it. If you succeed the townsfolk will reward you.

The screen shows the town from above, but it more resembles a model of a some medieval village from a history book. Sixteen houses surround a central pond, with the arena at the top. The fences are kept down on the right. Depending on the ferocity of the bull chosen, the fences will only stand up to such mistreatment and collapse.

COMMENTS

Control keys: cursors for direction, P = pick, D = Drop
Joystick: AGF, Protek cursor clip on
Keyboard play: poor
Colour below average
Graphics: very poor
Sound: unimaginative
Skill levels: 3
Lives: 1

This is a desperately irritating program. The idea would be a good one, but selecting a level is a major business while you wait for the words to wend their way down the screen, then your man has to move from the bottom left of the screen to the bottom right to start collecting fences. This takes an age because of the dreadful graphics. Fences are collected by pressing the P key and dropped by pressing the D key - very obvious, but silly keys to use because they are far apart. You need to drop the fences quickly because the bull can still gore you while you are carrying one. It may sound like a good idea but the execution is not.

The graphics are small, not really animated and very jerky character movement. I found the game uninspiring, in fact I didn't enjoy it at all.

It says on the inlay that this is 100% machine code. If it is then I'm surprised. It doesn't look it. The graphics are primitive to say the least. It's also quite unplayable because the speed of the man is too slow compared to that of the bull which moves along in great jerks like a jumping spider. Not very nice.

MACHINE: Spectrum 1648K
CONTROL: Cursor Keys
FROM: Phipps Associates, £5.95

The cassette cover says LOAD "BULL" and that's exactly what this game is.

The basic idea is fine. You have to trap an escaped bull by picking up pieces of fence and positioning them around the animal.

One could even almost forgive the graphics, despite the fact that the tiny character-size drawings which represent you and the bull jerk around the screen like penguins on pogo-sticks.

What's unforgivable is that the game uses an almost impossible combination of keys, and when (after a few seconds) your single life is used up, it forces you to sit through a long and utterly uninteresting pre-game routine before you can start again.

The keys are the cursor keys for movement plus 'P' to pick up a fence and 'D' to drop it into position. Easy to remember. Ludicrous in actual use.

It's just possible that if you put in hours of frustrating effort, you might get to the point where the game became enjoyable. But much more likely you'll give up, gored and bored.

16/48K Spectrum
Run away
Phipps Associates
£6.95

Silicon Pamplona. On holiday in a Spanish village you are pursued by a wild bull. There is a 30,000 pesetas reward from which 50 is deducted every second. You use yourself as bait and put up fences. These do not stay up very long. The Bull will gore you if you are carrying a fence, but you are fairly safe behind one. Three levels of play, not great graphics, cheaper than a holiday in Spain.