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Welcome
to Game of the Week! Each week there will be a
new featured game on this page. The game may be good,
average or diabolically bad, it really doesn't matter!
Just look at the pics, read the text and enjoy the nostalgia!
:-) Game of the Week! is open to contributions so if you
would like to contribute
a game article for this page you're more than welcome
to! Every article we receive will be considered! |
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Tubular
Bells
1986 Computer
Rentals Limited (CRL)
Programmed
by ?
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Most
text of the present article comes from the review published
in the sixteenth issue of the British C64 magazine ZZAP!64
(street date: July 10th, 1986). |
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TUBULAR BELLS
Nu
Wave, £7.95 cass, keys only
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This program isn't so much a game but more of sort of
'light entertainment' in both meanings of the word.
What the program does is get the Commodore's good old
SID chip to belt out the various tunes from Mike Oldfield's
Tubular Bells album while giving a sort of light
display, or, as we are informed on the inlay, 'a combination
of music and kinetic interactive chromo visual designs'.
After
the program has loaded pressing the space bar sets it
off and immediately the first track on the Tubular
Bells album belts out and a series of parallel lines
whizz about the screen at high speed. Pressing the space
bar repeatedly cycles through the various tracks.
The
light bar thunders about at high velocity, ricocheting
oft the sides of the screen and generally whooping it
up. There is no direct control over its movement but
the entertainee can change the symmetry of the lines,
length of the line's tail, colours (up to four colours
at once), the gap in between the lines, or the computer
take control over what's if he or she just happens to
feel lazy at the time. There is another option which
toggles between line and 'laser' mode, laser being a
very fast moving dot which speeds its way around the
screen leaving a trail of dots behind it. When the computer
takes control over the light show it changes the colours,
symmetry etc randomly so an ever changing display is
shown.
Again
symmetry etc can be changed to suit the user's requirements.
Basically there are four types of symmetry; none at
all (a single set of lines), horizontal mirror image,
vertical mirror image and a combination of both mirror
images. Clever use of symmetry can give rise to some
very jolly patterns indeed.
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.
The
light display on this program is the most notable thing
about it -- it's quite jolly and provides a bit of fun
for a minute or ten but after that it tends to bore.
The music is highly disappointing and Clever Music have
used Wizardry
voices in the Mike Oldfield tunes which make them sound
rather samey. I suppose the best thing to do is turn
down the volume of your telly and play your own tunes
to it, but if you really want an alternative light show
then try Psychedelia
-- it's far more interactive and varied.
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If
Tubular
Bells
was more interactive and had better music then
I would certainly class it as alternative entertainment
at its best. But, unfortunately it isn't, since
although the various effects are very pretty to
look at for ten minutes or so, it does become
quite tedious shortly thereafter, regardless of
what state of mind you are in. The awful rendition
of the Tubular
Bells
album doesn't help much, either. No, I think Mr
Minter's Psychedelia
still has the edge in what is a very limited field
of binary entertainment. Still, I can't blame
CRL for trying. Well, I could but I won't.
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Presentation
82%
Informative title screen nicely laid out.
Graphics
76%
Nice whizzy lines effect which
can give some quite pretty patterns.
Sound
69%
Very disappointing Mike Oldfield
renditions which could have been a lot better.
Hookability
71%
Dead easy to get into.
Lastability
23%
But it doesn't half get boring
after a while.
Value
For Money 29%
Far too expensive for what it offers.
Overall
44%
Pretty, but boring.
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Htmlized
by Dimitris
Kiminas (16 Aug 2006)
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