Your Commodore - Commodore Is Awesome

C64 REVIEW
O f T H E I A O N T H
Trailblazer
Ever fancied yourself as a football travelling along an interstellar bypass?
You Have? Gremlin's latest masterpiece can
help you realise your strange ambition.
By Stuart Cooke
i
PLAYER. t $C 001111
fcity
such as London in the rush hour is a little hair-raising
,
then the latest release from Gremlin Graphics will have you
l
thinking again.
It's not so much the fact that there are thousands of cars
i
trying to reach the same destination (in fact there are only
kyou
and one opponent), it's the fact that the quality of the
e road is so poor. You could say it is fairly reminiscent of a
mSunday
drive around the M25.
o Before I pass any further comments on the game I think
s
a little scene setting is in order.
Imagine this. You are a football, yes I know that is hard
t
to imagine but do try, travelling down an interstellar bypass.
pOK,
so it is a little hard to imagine but I'm sure the bypass is
einterstellar
since there seems to be no ground beneath it and
oall
around are millions of stars.
p The C64's screen is split into two sections. The top half of
lthe
screen being one player's view of his_ball and the track
ahead of it, the bottom half being the second player's view.
e
As the game starts you soon realise that the road, bypass,
, course, call it what you will, is not all that it seems. As you
ywatch
the other player disappear off into the distance and
oyou
phut-phut along more like a Morris-Minor than a
u football in outer space, certain things about the track
4GET
IN LAME •
110 L E Y
C
T I R E
1 0
;
.
PLAYER E Sc G1103110 LEV C TIRE 13 t
E S
. • GET IN LAME
J
TS • •J
3
0
• ,-0
11
7
_
given seven jumps which makes it even trickier. A one or tw
player trial game allows you to get used to the handleing of
your ball down a series of practice tracks and the final option
allows you to race against a robot, which is not that easy to
beat.
t become apparent. It is made up of multi-coloured squares.
h
So what do the squares do? Firstly watched with horror
as my poor little football disappeared into the void through a
i
black hole. Thankfully it did return after a few moments,
nthough
a number of valuable seconds were wasted.
k Secondly, my ball, which was by now travelling at umpteen
Controlling the game is extremely easy. Forward and
Back to speed up and slow down. Left and Right to move
across the track and fire to force your ball to jump. Getting
your ball to land where you want is the major problem.
The graphics and sound are limited though adequate
for the game. The scrolling playing area is detailed enough to
t million miles per hour, was flung backward at an alarming
hrate
of knots as it hit a purple square.
a
This is when I decided to find out what each of the
t
squares do. I have already gone over the effects of the black
and purple squares. The blue ones simply cause your ball to
dbounce,
useful when your road suddenly disappears ahead
r of you. Red ones slow you down and green ones speed you
i up. If you are lucky (?) enough to hit a white square then
let you see the obstacles in front of you as you career down
the track, though I must admit, at top speed, by the time you
realise a hole is coming up, you have generally fallen through
it.
On second thoughts a Sunday drive around the M25 is a
picnic compared to this game. Full speed ahead to your local
computer shop and buy a copy. Mind you watch your TV
screen, after a few hours playing this game you'll be just
vyour
ball shoots off down the track with a turbo boost, well about ready to put your joystick through it. ' ( T I D
i at least until you fall down a hole which is bound to happen
sooner or later. As for the pretty cyan ones, well I'll leave
n
that for you to find out, though I must say they are extremely
g
confusing.
a Numerous playing options are included in the game. You
Touchline
Name: Trailblazer. Price: 0.95. Machine: C64. Supplier:
Gremlin Graphics, Alpha House, 10 Carver Street, Sheffield
Si 4FS. Tel: (0742) 753423.
r can have a one or two player arcade game, where you must
ocomplete
the course in a limited time. You are also only
u
Originality: 10/10, Graphics:9/10. Playability: 10/10. Value:
10/10.
n
YOUR COMMODORE november 1986:10