The BBC and Master Computer Public Domain Library

VINDALOO

Professional, Originally Released On Cassette Only

Game Type          : Arcade Adventure Platform Style

Authors            : Kevin Blake and Jason Sobell

Standalone Release(s)  : 1985: VINDALOO, Tynesoft, £7.95

Compilation Release(s) : 1989: MICROVALUE FOUR GAMES 1, Tynesoft, £3.99

Stated compatibility    : Electron Side A, BBC Side B

Actual compatibility    : As stated

Supplier            : TYNESOFT, Unit 3 Addison Industrial Estate, Blaydon, TYNE &

                    WEAR NE21 4TE. Tel: 091 414 4611

Disc compatibility     : Unknown

Instructions

Raj is the owner of an Indian Take Away who likes to partake of his own Vindaloo curries! Unfortunately for him, he's eaten just one too many and must find the W.C. which is at the bottom of his cellar (very quickly)!

Raj's cellar is so large that it is made up of many rooms. You will have to guide him through these rooms to get to his ultimate goal.

Game Screens

 1. Under The Takeaway

 2. Look A Toerag!

 3. I've Gota Frogphone

 4. Misplaced Bitbrain

 5. Scoop De Doop

 6. Skull Level Four

 7. Got A Queen Ticket

 8. Sanderson Road

 9. Buy Inca Cola II

10. Sort This One Out

11. Eleventh Heaven

12. Sick As A Parrot

13. Lead Pipes Rule OK

14. Dom De Dom Dom

15. Nearly There

16. Only Kidding

17. Life Is An Orange

18. Squeaky Clean

19. Et Tu Scrooloose

20. Spam Sandwiches

21. Who Can It Be Now

22. Flushed Wif Success

Game Controls

Z - Left,   X - Right,   <COPY>/<DELETE> - Pause/Continue

Q - Sound Off,   S - Sound On (In Pause Mode)

Instructions' Source   : MICROVALUE FOUR GAMES 1 (Tynesoft) Inner Inlay

Review (Electron User)

How on earth can you make a game out of a curry? The clue lies in the last three letters of the title, and your aim is to become "flushed" with success. The storyline concerns Raj, who runs an Indian take-away, but has eaten one curry too many and is now in urgent need of relief. The vital facility he requires is deep in the cellar under the shop and your job is to guide him to it.

Finding the route is not too difficult. You start at the top of each screen and work your way to the bottom. Your controls are just left and right - you fall from one floor to the next. To make the journey, you have to cross bridges which vanish quickly and, in some cases, unpredictably. You also have to cope with lifts. You can fall on to them while they are moving downwards, but you will lose a life if you fall on to a lift which is rising to meet you.

Apart from having to judge the moving platforms, you have to steer Raj through collections of animals that bounce up and down on elastic threads. Fortunately, they move in a well-ordered manner and you soon learn how to avoid them.

If you load the game but don't start playing it straight away you'll get a display of the twenty rooms in turn. It is well worth the time looking through all of the screens so that you can learn the hazards before you are plunged into them.

You will also be able to enjoy the good quality scenery, the pleasing plinky-plonk sounds and the humour in the room names.

VINDALOO is a nice idea and most of the programming is good, but playing it proved something of a disappointment. It could be that Raj, who looks like an Egyptian mummy with a rucksack, flickers horribly, or it could be that the dissolving pathways just have me beat. Or perhaps it is that the whole game is too slow - Raj moves at the right speed, but you have to spend too long waiting for the bridges, lifts or elasticated animals to be in the correct places. Whatever it is, Tynesoft's VINDALOO is not for me.

Sound ........................... 7
Graphics ........................ 7
Playability ..................... 4
Value for money ................. 3
Overall ......................... 5

Rog Frost, ELECTRON USER 4. 1