REVIEW

AT 12,13; "BUMP UP THE NUMBERS (AND LETTERS)"

Reviewer: Cowboy
Developer: Ed Raven
Genre: Keepy Uppy
Platform: Spectrum 48K
Language: BASIC

After taking forever to animate suicidal stickmen for Jump Off a Cliff Simulator and then realising he didn't have the time to finish off his already-ambitious "Legend of Zelga" Gameboy™ demake, Ed says that he wanted to do one last game - but keep it simple.

Starring a low-res cousin of the paddle from Arkanoid, the ZX Spectrum ROM font and a couple of BEEP scales, he apparently knocked this one out (F'nar - Ed) in only 2 days after a conversation we had comparing the number of entries in the last few years of the CSSCGC*.

* At 51 entries we're now officially half as good as last year's compo!

The premise of Bump Up the Numbers _{(and letters)} (Catchy - Ed) is, quite simply, to stop the numbers _{(and letters)} falling randomly from the top of the screen getting to the bottom of the screen.

Ed's control system is quite interesting with two keys for left (Q and W) and two for right (O and P.) The 'outer' keys move the paddle faster (well, in bigger attribute block jumps,) to enable you to lunge for those numbers _{(and letters)} a bit further away than you could make with the slower moving 'inner' keys.

In addition you can warp/wrap to the other side of the screen by heading to the extreme left or right.

As you 'catch' the falling numbers _{(and letters)} they bounce (or Bump - Ed) back up and fade out of existence in a way which is simultaneously poetic, and graphically cheap.

Flashing letters are rarer and so worth more points than numbers and, as the handy instructions explain, the more you bump the bigger your score multiplier gets!

If miss one then you lose a life and the multiplier is reset, however, continued success is periodically rewarded with an extra life.

The more successful you are the more numbers _{(and letters)} the game throws at you simultaneously so, at top pelt, it can get relatively hectic!

It's difficult to be sarcastic about this because I think Ed has, albeit accidentally, produced a game which shows some promise and only really qualifies as crap because it's BASIC and bit slow.

The UDG-less presentation is really well done - which gives it a lovely ZX81 feel* - the sound's not bad and the gameplay, if it was faster/had more responsive keys and had a couple of staple power-ups/gimmicks, could be tweaked to produce something challenging and maybe even addictive?

Ironically then, Ed's still managed to drop the ball on his final CSSCGC 2014 entry. Congratulations on your first year of dismal software and I hope to see more next year.

* ZX81 Demake?

In the absence of Ed's Demakes Challenge entry I've had a quick go at re-imagining this game** as it might appear on the Zeddy.

In fact, I suspect Bobs could do a zippier machine code version in his lunch hour?

** Just a screenshot I'm afraid - I had to close the the ZXText2P2$$$! business as it ran into money and legal troubles.

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